When did a ride's "immersion" make you legitimately question where you were?

[Rob Coasters]

Immersion is where a theme park builds a ride's world to make you forget that you're at a park. Theme parks, especially Merlin, have hugely tried to immerse its riders into multiple worlds - but while the rides often have impressive theming, they almost always fail to make the rider ask themselves "am I at a park, or am I really in this world?". However, in my experiences, there have been only three rides that had me reconsidering my current location.

Absolute peak success in worldbuilding transports you out of the theme park. This phenomenon is something that I unofiicially call "true immersion". Let me break my three experiences down.

April 2019: True Immersion #1 - Derren Brown's Ghost Train at Thorpe Park
No, I'm not joking. This silly VR attraction had me genuinely questioning where I was. I guess I was not used to VR at the time so perhaps this escalated this ride's immersion for me, but I did indeed have a few moments of my whereabouts being thrown into doubt. I don't remember the specifics of what was happening, but it was pretty cool. On future rerides of Derren, this did not happen, so unfortunately it was a one-off with this ride, and my rides on the newly refurbished version, Ghost Train, from 2023 onwards have not had me experience true immersion either.

June 2023: True Immersion #2 - Ratatouille at Walt Disney Studios Paris
Oftentimes people aren't too keen on this trackless dark ride, but me personally I loved it to bits. Perhaps it was because it was my first ever time experiencing a trackless dark ride, but this ride really clicked with me. I knew I liked it from the start, even with the screens, but what really threw me for a loop was the ride's fantastic sense of scale. At around the middle of the ride the whole thing started to seriously feel like a drug trip with how truly massive everything felt. As well as Derren, nobody else shared this feeling of true immersion with me and most don't even enjoy the ride that much, even less to the extent that I do, so I worry that this is a one-off.

January 2024: True Immersion #3 - FLY night ride at Phantasialand
So far the only roller coaster to give this feeling to me, and it'll be difficult to find a second. Over half a year after riding it eight times over the course of three days I still badly struggle to find the words to describe the ride, but a night ride changed everything. In the beginning it just honestly felt like "same ride, just dark outside mate" until some point during the second half where suddenly everything became a blur and I practically ascended. Coming into sheer confusion of where I was, I had "where the f**k am I" in my head and literally nothing else. Am I still here in Germany? Has literally anything else happened in life? What has led to this situation? It became thirty seconds where nothing mattered. Flew into the brakes, still utterly bewildered by that feeling and what I'd just gone through. What?

It's safe to say that my experience with FLY at night was the most immersed I had ever been in a theme park, but what about you? When did a ride make you question reality because it had successfully immersed you into its world?

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I think I have to give my top spots to Disney, as cliche as that is. There were two standout moments for me in terms of immersions and just all around general 'wtf? Was that real magic?'

The first one was obviously Rise of the Resistance, the immersion on that ride is just crazy, if you're a fan of the SW universe you will genuinely begin to question whether you've entered a Star Wars movie. But as good as it is, and it is good, in terms of the involuntary psychological reaction I experienced, it pales in comparison to the second one. It definitely made me emotional at times though, but I felt more in control of those emotions if that makes sense, I didn't lose all control like the second one on this list.

That second one was during Cosmic Rewind's pre show. I don't want to give spoilers, because not knowing was what made it so special. But that one trick, which I knew nothing of going into it, actually blew me away. It's a very simple trick, but for a good few minutes I had no idea how it was done, because I just couldn't get my mind straight. It is executed with such perfection and I was so blown away by that trick, the theming, the immersion, everything, that I was absolutely taken to another place for 10 minutes. I've never had a completely involuntary reaction that strong before, or since. Absolutely mind blowing, it was like I was not in control of my own mind, body or feelings anymore. I honestly don't know how, when, or even 'if' anything will ever top that. (Fairly good coaster experience too, just a shame about some parts of the layout and it's theming in the last 3rd.)

I would give both testis to experience that initial run through of Cosmic Rewind again, felt better than any amount of beer, any drug, even better than any woman / man / lover could make you feel. I've said it before on here, if I rated coasters purely on how they made me feel, it'd be up there in my top 5, top 3 even. But I don't, I had to factor in the coaster layout itself and that lacklustre on ride theming in some parts.

Man I had so many moments on that trip, I can't wait to go back out there. I haven't even mentioned the Harry Potter related moments!!!

Another moment was my first ride on Taron. It was just so disorientating, and it was one of my first foreign theme park trips, so I'd never experienced anything on that kind of level when it comes to theming and immersion. I was solo tripping it, and I think I cried like a baby mid ride. I genuinely started to feel like I was flying through a village, over rooftops and down narrow streets, I'd been completely transported into whatever world and alternative reality Klugheim exists in. Another first ride I'd give anything to experience again.

We can ride these things as often as we like, but those one off experiences, the way they made you feel that one time, we'll never get that back. That makes me sad

Great thread btw.

 

[TPoseOnTantrum]

Dragon Mountain at Marineland

It's a bit of an odd one but the park has its own kind of immersion. Everything from the rides, park design, architecture, overgrown trees, atmosphere, and lack of guests make it into the perfect time capsule. You really feel like you're stuck in the eighties at the park with only slivers of modernity here and there.

Dragon Mountain itself does have the same kind of "immersion" that goes with landscape rides like Voyage and Beast, mainly just a whole lot of its own territory and terrain. The real meat comes from the ride being so ridiculously far from the park entrance, and the entrance to said ride is still a five minute walk down an abandoned path to the entrance/exit. Everything is overgrown, spaced out, and so totally desolate. There is a functional maintenance building out of guest views but it really does feel like approaching and descending into a cave. It's impossible to get cell reception while at the coaster. Station and queue have next to no lighting, so you become more focused on not bumping into rocks indoors rather than having a good look at them.

In its own weird way it really does feel like its own little world.

 

[Nitefly]

The first one was obviously Rise of the Resistance, the immersion on that ride is just crazy, if you're a fan of the SW universe you will genuinely begin to question whether you've entered a Star Wars movie. But as good as it is, and it is good, in terms of the involuntary psychological reaction I experienced, it pales in comparison to the second one. It definitely made me emotional at times though, but I felt more in control of those emotions if that makes sense, I didn't lose all control like the second one on this list.

In my experience, having to overhear guests talking about needing a poo during the mid-experience queue (!) is deffo immersion breaking to me.

Unless it’s a ‘group event’ where you are all heaving a hearty ‘lol’ together, a shorter uninterrupted experience (‘Solitary Confinement: The Ride’) is my sort of cosy jam

 

[Bowser]

Flight of the Sky Lion at Legoland is a good one for this. If you're in the right seat so the screen is all around you and all the wind/water effects are on.