Attraction Source Forum

I am not sure if I am alone in this but it seems to me for years now that the park has failed to invest substantially in any rides that are not roller coasters. I do enjoy a roller coaster but I feel the park now offers very little else other than this.  

I personally would like to see investment in other rides. If you look at a park like Universal Orlando, they have Spider-Man, Transformers rides or and the Harry Potter rides, Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom for example. I just feel like there is a lack of variety now.  Am I missing something, are rides like this not financially viable?  My personal opinion is that the park has become very one dimensional...

Looking at Merlin right now, it would be very strange seeing them invest millions in a dark ride that wouldn't be as good as anything in Orlando. Merlin also doesn't have the size or money to build and maintain something that big. 

I would want to see one in the future but I think it's very unlikely.

I can understand the cost and not being able to compete on a scale such as Universal, but even take Valhalla (now dated granted) at Blackpool, very innovative for its time and cost around £15 million I think.  It was new, different and fairly creative...... Even with the Smiler for example, I personally think some sort of indoor interactive roller coaster with effects to replace the Black Hole would have been better than what they built.  There was nothing really new or innovative about it... certainly not in the same way as rides of the past e.g. Oblivion, which was unique for its time.

I am not trying to bash the park I would love to see it grow further I just feel it lacks diversity.  Nemesis sub terra (after it had been revised) was a step in the right direction for me.  Not the best of rides but something different I guess.

I agree with you to be fair but I actually really enjoy the Smiler. A launched indoor coaster would be really cool or a Valhalla style ride would be great, there's space for one where CatCF used to be.

TheBeornen wrote:Looking at Merlin right now, it would be very strange seeing them invest millions in a dark ride that wouldn't be as good as anything in Orlando. Merlin also doesn't have the size or money to build and maintain something that big. 

I would want to see one in the future but I think it's very unlikely.

Well they did in Ghost Train not 2 years ago, and personally this holds up to a good deal of Orlando attractions. Not to mention investing in Heide Parks’s Ghostbusters which uses a very similar ride system to Spider-Man only last year. Never say never. :P

Owen wrote:

TheBeornen wrote:Looking at Merlin right now, it would be very strange seeing them invest millions in a dark ride that wouldn't be as good as anything in Orlando. Merlin also doesn't have the size or money to build and maintain something that big. 

I would want to see one in the future but I think it's very unlikely.

Well they did in Ghost Train not 2 years ago, and personally this holds up to a good deal of Orlando attractions. Not to mention investing in Heide Parks’s Ghostbusters which uses a very similar ride system to Spider-Man only last year. Never say never. :P

Yeah and to be fair at the time Hex was and still is an absolutely amazing dark ride, a few more surprising and well created experiences would only help the park and if they were enclosed it means they can run in poor weather which i s a plus for a British theme park.

I think every area in the park needs an additional flat ride to be honest. With the removal of Ripsaw and Submission, and the total lack of flats in Dark forest there’s very little to do aside from queuing for the big rides.

I used to love being able to jump on the small rides and have a great laugh doing it! But it looks as if once again Merlin will invest big for individual rides but not in its longevity.

The problem we’ve got is that Merlin are extremely hesitant to invest in something unless they see an immediate return on that investment. Multi-million pound rollercoasters and dark ride attractions generally draw extra guests into the parks, so Merlin have no problem installing them.

I could be wrong, but I believe there was a rumour floating around a few years ago that, what ended up being Mechanica at Liseberg was originally meant for Towers (I believe the plan was for it to go on the old Submission site) but, for whatever reason, the plan was shelved.

I think we have to be realistic and accept that while Merlin are in control, we’re highly unlikely to see any new flat rides installed.