There are always a good number of interesting new projects happening across the theme park industry at any given time. The closure of the original Splash Mountain attraction at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago gave me a reason to think about the other times that the Walt Disney Imagineers have closed an attraction in order to re-skin it, transforming it into an entirely new experience.
While those kinds of projects are rare, another interesting trend has begun to take place within the roller coaster realm. For example, Alton Towers has closed its extremely popular Nemesis roller coaster (B&M Inverted). The park is removing it…and replacing it with a newly manufactured clone.
Nemesis is closed for the entire 2023 season and the new 2024 version will feature some changes. The layout is expected to remain the same. However, the new track now arriving is now black in color. It also features bright red “veins” along the track spine.
Alton Towers has a reputation for storytelling and has been pushing a fun narrative to evolve the storyline behind Nemesis. It has even reopened an attraction in the park with a related storyline this season called Nemesis Sub-Terra.
Preserving theme park attractions
Roller coasters, like any machine, can be worked on, updated and restored. Coasters can even have whole sections of track replaced when needed. The Big One (Arrow Dynamics) at Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a perfect example of this in action. Over the years, several different sections of Big One have been replaced with new tracks. These have come from a different manufacturer, as Arrow Dynamics is no more.
However, tearing an entire roller coaster down, only to rebuild it again with new pieces is not an everyday occurrence. Coaster fans may recall that Universal Orlando did this very same thing with the Incredible Hulk roller coaster (also from B&M). The ride, at the Islands of Adventure theme park, closed down in late summer 2015. It was then rebuilt from the ground up. It reopened about a year later.
I believe Disneyland may have actually been the first to do this, back in 2003. At that time the park closed down its original version of Space Mountain only to replace it with a modern replica that was able to open in summer 2005. In a similar fashion, Disneyland also shut down its Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster for a track replacement between 2013-2014.
New old rides for Disney, Silver Dollar City and more
Across the Atlantic, Europa-Park did the same thing to its EuroSat enclosed roller coaster. This closed in late 2017 for a complete replacement and reopened in 2018. This wasn’t the only total replacement project for Europa-Park either. A tragic fire broke out in the park in 2018 that consumed the park’s beloved Pirates in Batavia dark ride. Without hesitation, the Mack family, which owns the park, confirmed that the Pirates would be back, bigger and better than ever.
After a fully modern redesign of the attraction, the all-new version reopened in summer 2020.
Meanwhile, in Japan, Disney is about to take things a step further in terms of preserving its theme park attractions. It is preparing to close down Tokyo Disneyland’s Space Mountain in 2024. This time it will demolish the entire structure and has already begun the early prep work behind the original ride. An entirely new version of Space Mountain will open in 2027.
Back in America, there are rumors of a similar rebuild concept at Silver Dollar City. The park has announced that it will close its Fire In The Hole dark ride/coaster later this year. However, watchful eyes and online rumors are already watching the park with keen interest. That’s because a yet-to-be-announced new attraction has been under construction for the past 18+ months.
The park has yet to make any kind of official announcement about the 2024 attraction. However, the long-standing rumor is that this will be a modernized version of the Fire In The Hole experience. I wouldn’t expect confirmation of this until later this year when the park has finally closed down the original.
Unfortunate circumstances
Nostalgia is a strong motivator when it comes to preserving theme park attractions and experiences for future generations. Yet some attractions are not so lucky. Some rides are lost forever and remembered only in the history books. Others are simply retired as they lose their popularity with the guests, or out of a need to make room for future expansion projects.
Some are lost suddenly, often due to tragic events like floods, raging winds, and horrible fires. Just the other day, guests witnessed a fire at Europa Park. This caused extensive damage to a building structure housing sections of three separate attractions: the Magic World of Diamonds (a walk-through attraction), the Tiroler Log Flume and the Alpenexpress Enzian coaster.
The extent of the damage is not yet determined. Leaked images show that the walk-through appears to be a complete loss, along with extensive damage to the flume ride. So there is every possibility that one, two or possibly all three attractions may be lost forever.
Why preserve theme park attractions?
Anyone who has ever worked on one knows the amount of design work that goes into creating a theme park attraction. I’m not just talking about the engineering behind the ride system, but all the design work and labor that goes into creating the theming, crafting the story, character designs, animatronics, set design, composing music, and so much more.
We can consider a theme park attraction to be a massive work of modern “art”. But instead of art made to be simply looked upon, theme park attractions are made to be experienced. They are often designed to take you on an emotional journey as you experience their unique stories first-hand.
While collectors and museums go to great lengths to collect and preserve more traditional forms of art for future generations, theme park attractions just seem to fade away. This is a shame. And it has got me thinking that perhaps there is a way to somehow preserve these experiences for future generations.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that parks refuse to close down or replace their aging attractions. Instead, I’m thinking it would be nice to come up with methods of recording and documenting these attractions so that they could be on display in the future in some alternate form for future generations to enjoy.
Think of it this way. If there was a museum of theme park experiences out there somewhere, wouldn’t you be interested in seeing it?
The National Roller Coaster Museum
When it comes to museums that are preserving theme park attractions, one such project actually does exist right now in the United States. Though it is still in the collection phase of things and is not yet ready to open to the public, the National Roller Coaster Museum is coming together in Plainview, Texas.
Over the years, the National Roller Coaster Museum has amassed the largest collection of actual roller coaster cars and memorabilia to date. It often accepts new donations of old vehicles from theme parks as they retire their rides. Here the collection is being preserved and set up in temporary displays. The museum currently posts pictures and videos of its items online as a sort of virtual museum experience.
All this has got me thinking that it would be incredible to eventually see some of these actual roller coaster cars set up in front of large projection screens, able to display actual point-of-view footage of the real ride experience. You could even take it one step further, and place some of the vehicles on motion bases, programmed to simulate the movement of the former roller coasters.
Taking this idea a few steps further, wouldn’t it be fantastic if Disney or Universal were to create a mini attraction or interactive museum themed entirely around their lost attractions from the past? A variety of means, using both old and cutting-edge technology, could re-create simulated ride-throughs of these past attractions.
Bringing back rides from the past
Universal could let guests enjoy what it was like to ride Back To The Future: The Ride, for example, in a variety of ways, ranging from just showing off the pre-show and actual simulator ride film on screens to using some sort of a motion base in front of a projection screen.
To bring back the experience of the lost Jaws ride in Orlando, Universal could create a VR version that a guest could experience from the dry comfort of a chair, all the way up to something more extreme like an immersion tunnel-style experience surrounded by projection walls on all sides. Of course, for lost shows and 4D theater-style experiences, something as simple as playing a video of the performance would work as well.
Disney has so many dark rides that it has retired over the years at its parks. So, it could create an entire stand-alone attraction dedicated to reliving these past experiences in a variety of ways. Think of it as something like the DisneyQuest attraction that closed down years ago, but themed to past rides.
Fans could relive the former 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride simply by watching a video projection of the scenes through a porthole window while playing the former audio track. Guests could take a virtual spin through the former Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride or experience the terror of Alien Encounter all over again with the use of modern VR headsets and editing of the audio tracks to play as 3D spatial sound experiences.
Projects that are already preserving theme park attractions
This isn’t just a vision of the future, however. In fact, the proof of concept is already out there! Talented Disney fans out there in cyberspace have already made a VR re-creation of the Adventure Thru Inner Space ride experience. This is available to view on YouTube or with the use of an Oculus Quest headset.
Over the years, I’ve also seen some computer-animated fan creations that will let you relive a ride through the former 20,000 Leagues of the Sea submarine ride. There has even been an attempt to create the former Horizons ride from Epcot.
The concept fascinates me. While there would always be the question of just how much return on investment a theme park would see by embarking on such an endeavor for public consumption, there is a good need for parks to document these attractions simply for historical purposes, with the option of sharing it online for the park’s fans.
Digitising popular rides
The Efteling theme park in the Netherlands actually just did this very thing in preserving and “digitally immortalizing” the former Spookslot attraction. According to Efteling: “Our creative philosophy states that we build for eternity. Sometimes, such as with the Spookslot, this is not possible. But if it is no longer possible to make something exist in the physical world, why not try it in the digital world?”
To that end, the outside of the Spookslot experience is now available to visit in the Metaverse. The park worked with some experts on the concept. Before the demolition of Spookslot, Efleting digitized the entire attraction using 3D scanners. It then converted that data into a 3D model that could be presented online.
Interestingly enough, access to the inside of the attraction building is currently restricted to park employees. They have access to the interior of the attraction itself, including restricted access areas, through a digital NFT key. The NFT keys were a gift to employees, but according to the website, employees are allowed to sell these NFT keys if they so wish, thus granting others access to this experimental digital attraction concept.
Top image: Splash Mountain, courtesy of Disneyland
