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Brilliant in concept, disappointing in execution?

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Often when concepts for new attractions are first pitched, the initial concept sounds awesome. Like a recipe for the perfect attraction. However, something can sometimes go awry during development, meaning that the execution of an amazing concept might not live up to the strength of the initial concept. So my question to you today is; have you ever ridden an attraction that sounded amazing in concept, but was disappointing in execution?

In terms of some of my nominations, a coaster I’d nominate for this is Galactica at Alton Towers. In terms of the concept; the whole “flying like Superman” idea is awesome, and I think the whole idea of having a sedate, nice ride that has a really calm feel is a great one! However, I’ve got to say that I’m unfortunately not finding myself too enamoured with the final product these days. I find the whole position and the restraints that entails quite uncomfortable, and the ride involves some of that “lying on your back” stuff that I personally find quite awkward.

But what attractions have you done that were great in concept, but disappointing in execution?
 
Ok I have a few that come to mind:-

SLCs and Boomerangs - SLCs are Vekoma's take on a B&M invert. The layouts look great, but Vekoma made them ride like ****. Same with Boomerangs - cool concept, but are capable of riding a bit crappy.

Standup coasters - Cool unique concept, since standing up on a coaster is certainly a rarity. But they tend to be uncomfortable rides, especially if you have a cock and balls, which is probably the reason why some of them have been converted to floorless.

Skywarps - A cool and unique take on a Super Loop that should pack a punch into a small space, except Skyline made them uncomfortable, rough and unreliable and with a bad ride cycle.

Tourbillons - Don't get me wrong they look pretty cool offride but from what I've heard, they kind of ride a bit rubbish and are fairly unreliable?

Launched woodies - Lightning Rod, that's all I'm gonna say. But I'm not sure this really counts since it's issues were mostly down to the Topper track rather than the launch, but the launch has still had its fair share of issues afaik.

Just a few that I thought of but I'm sure there are plenty more.
 
Derren Brown's Ghost Train: With all its complicated features and expensive technology you'd think it'd be an amazing immersive dark ride.

Valravn: It has height and speed behind it, but still manages to bore me. Well except for the valleys, to which it jitters you to death in an B&M rattle.

Red Force: Feels like being launched on a track full of spikes. Furius Baco at least has an AWESOME launch to it, this just is painful.

All these 3 could of epic, but all three just fell flat in my opinion. The Ghost Train is by far the worst.
 
The Gringotts ride at Universal comes to mind. A lightly-themed indoor rollercoaster would have been a million times better than what we got. Even if they wanted it to primarily be a screen ride, I think it could have been done a lot better.
 
I feel like this could apply to plenty of Intamin innovations from a park management perspective.

TTD: Incredible idea, fantastic ride experience, but horrible reliability, and stupidly expensive to operate.

I 305: had to be massively overhauled because of blackouts, and now the GP are afraid (perhaps rightfully so) to ride it.

Maverick: Now with zero zero-g rolls. Great ride experience, but low capacity, especially for such a major park.

Skyrush = Thigh Crush

All of the above may be considered great rides by enthusiasts, but did not exactly "work as advertised" for the client.

For a great idea with execution that falls flat in ride experience specifically, I submit the vekoma Flying Dutchman. Ultimately a good idea, but the ride itself is a bit uncomfortable, and not particularly exciting. It was an important step in the gradual development of better flying coasters, but this earlier version of the technology didn't exactly hit the nail on the head.
 
Another vote for the Vekoma SLC. Brilliant layout, awful track profiling and train design.

Another vote for Derren Brown's LBGT. A new, big budget dark ride at Thorpe Park? Yes please. A modern take on the classic ghost train? Yes please. Psycho-wizard Derren Brown involved? Ok, sure. Giant, Victorian train carriage suspended from the ceiling on chains? Hell yes.
VR? Nooooo!
Everything about it is awesome... except for the fact that it's a VR attraction. Which just renders all the potentially awesome stuff completely null and void. Fail.

Zac Spins, Free Fly's and Volares. Cool ideas, interesting to watch, just... gross. So, so gross.
 
Vekoma SLCs and Boomerangs are definitely the obvious choice. The Boomerangs moreso I think - thrill ride in a small footprint, forward and backward sections and a reasonable throughput for a 1 train ride. But it's just not very good.

Derren Brown's Ghost Train could be chucked in here too, in the sense Howie mentions - a large dark ride with a fresh take on the ghost train concept, with a Victorian era theme and Derren Brown involved. But if you explain the concept as it is - a VR simulator with live action elements - it doesn't sound quite as brilliant.

There's plenty of scare mazes out there which fall into the realm of 'good on paper, bad in practice' too. An exhaustive list is too long, but the one that stands out to me is Project Ningyo at Movie Park Germany. Huge maze with a hospital / experiment gone wrong theme, along with it being the only maze on park where actors can touch you. Everything is there on paper. But the whole thing fell flat.
 
solarfall said:
The Gringotts ride at Universal comes to mind.
Click to expand...
Most definitely. As I mentioned in that rides at your home park you skip topic.. Gringotts fails at both being a good Coaster and being a good Dark Ride.... and if you have no prior knowledge of Harry Potter you're left confused as to who the characters even are and why you should care. At least with Forbidden Journey you get the sort of grand tour of Hogwarts and the book or movie storyline is irrelevant to enjoy the ride. Same for Hagrid's
 
I feel the Robocoaster dark rides fall short (though I haven't ridden the Batman one at Warner brother's Abu Dhabi)

it's a ride that could really flick you around and do some interesting stuff, but it spends a lot of time being a motion simulator, and you go onto your back once.
 
S&S strikes again.
Let's set the scene.
It's 2009. A race track in Germany is undergoing a large retrofit and expansion for 2009. Now, they want a thrill ride with this expansion. So, they contact S&S, and thus is created one of the most embarrassing failures of all time:

ring°racer

With the coaster up, several tests were conducted at low speed. The intended speed was 0 to 135 in 2 and a half seconds. The tests were going at around 80 mph. But, when engineers finally attempted to test it at it's full speed, as @ECG can personally attest to, the compressed air launch sort of let them down.

It exploded.

The explosion blew out nearby windows and injured 7 people. There were two defects in the launch system, forcing the opening to be pushed to 2013. After more faff, it opened on Halloween with a reduced speed - 0 to 99 in 2 seconds.
On November 3rd, it closed. And it never reopened. In 2014, it was announced by the race track that ring°racer wouldn't start running again as the ride is not economically viable.
It is, to this day, second only to Twist Coaster Robin in sheer epic failure. It literally operated for four days. That's a new level of disaster right there.
 
I like what others have said about TTD, 305, and Skyrush being maintenance nightmares or too intense of an attraction, but I'm gonna go with rides that left me personally disappointed.

El Toro

Perhaps the closest thing to the woodie hyper layout, brought to you by Intamin. Unfortunately, it's not in good shape (at least in 2019) and painful airtime prevent it from being enjoyable.

Kingda Ka

Dragster was a success with the crowds and turned out to be amazing, so surely Kingda Ka will fare similar results, right? Nope. Runs very poorly, the rattle prevents you from enjoying the ride, no pathway interaction, and the dual station is in disarray.

Kind of embarrassing that Great Adventure's two flagship coasters are disappointments, huh?

Oh, here's another one.

Banshee

Alpengeist proved that you can have a big daddy B&M invert and be a great ride. Too bad Banshee runs like ****.
 
Cranedude said:
On November 3rd, it closed. And it never reopened. In 2014, it was announced by the race track that ring°racer wouldn't start running again as the ride is not economically viable.
Click to expand...
Slightly off-topic, but the failure of the ride and the Nurburgring's resultant financial insecurity also cast a shadow over the venue's ability to host F1 races - though it did get one last year when most of the season was hastily rearranged to take place in Europe.
 
Remember that Mointainglider "Vertigo" in Walibi Belgium? It looked so huge and impressive and had to be torn down because it didn't work reliably. I also guess the ride experience was not worth the effort as it looks rather dull.

Also "Dawson's Duell" in Bellewaerde comes to my mind. The construction of this Alpine Coaster on supports is really impressive, especially as the station starts a above the trees, but it is an Alpine Coaster you cannot control yourself, which makes the ride weird and more like a slide. It also has a low capacity. Overall it makes me wonder who got this crazy idea.
 
Battle of Jungle King

Golden Horse went big for their first Tilt Coaster. Dueling tracks, a in-house track type (as opposed to the earlier Arrow copies), a custom layout with transitions looking significantly smoother on paper, JoraVision input for the scenery...

Except the dueling feature seem to (of course) never operate, the slow operations and tilt mechanism are 3 times more sluggish than Expedition GeForce's dispatches. Worse yet, everything after the vertical loop suffers from lethargic pacing and horrible rattle.

Let's hope the now-renamed Jinma Rides have indeed considerably improved their manufacturing process in the 6 years since building this. To their credit, they really show their will to do original designs and push the envelope much, much further than any other China-based supplier to my knowledge.
 
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