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Great parks that deserve an Upgrade?

GuyWithAStick

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
There are a lot of parks out there. Some are better than others. Some are not. Some of them were great parks everyone loved back in the day, but due to outdated technology, competitors, or straight-up neglect, are not living up to their fame and glory they once had. What parks do you think deserve a massive upgrade to keep up with the modern market?

The first thing that springs into mind is Epcot. They have been upgrading it, but Disney's upgrading things that don't need upgrading. Soarin' is utterly fantastic. Yes, the projectors were outdated, and yes, the film was outdated, and yes, a third concourse was helpful, but don't just ignore the practically abandoned Journey into Imagination building! The Human Body building is there if I'm not mistaken, and don't get me started on Innoventions. Jesus, that is an embarrassment to Disney. The World Showcase can't handle massive crowds, so Frozen will be terrible in handling everyone in Norway. Epcot is one of, if not my favorite Disney parks, so keeping it up to date will make it even better.

I also think that Kentucky Kingdom could still use a bit of upgrading. The coasters there are very good(aside from T3 obv.), but everything else is a bit lacking. The flats could be better(I can only remember 2 for the life of me- the drop tower and the inverting Frisbee), the layout can be much better(especially the back half), the operations can be better with ANY form of improvement, and the food. Dear god the food. I ordered the Chicken Tenders there, which I noticed were pre-made and frozen. Somehow, they burnt the FROZEN chicken. Accomplishing a feat like that deserves an award, but I don't want to award the food here. The service didn't help either. Just improve everything, and it'd be a much better park.
 
^ To Kentucky Kingdom's credit, the park is going into it's 4th year of operation under Ed Hart, and has managed a new roller coaster every 2 years thus far, with TLC to other major attractions (RMC retrack for Thunder Run, new trains for T3... that don't really work). I would find it hard to envision a more successful path for the park over a 4 year timespan, especially with the amazing additions of Lightning Run and Storm Chaser. Definitely more addition on the way, as well as refining of park operation; Six Flags certainly didn't help the matter with park layout and ride deployment.

Parks I would love to see major upgrades go to are:

- Valleyfair
- Great Escape
- Worlds of Fun

These parks carry good enough attractions, but certainly could merit new, major thrills; especially with respective markets they are in.
 
If anything, Great Escape needs to be taken away from Six Flags so someone can give some love back into the park. Every visit I've made post say... 2003, has just been more and more heartbreaking. I understand that parks need to evolve over time and while the S&S Towers (from SFNO) made a nice addition... it still sucks seeing Ghost Town become basic... Jungleland.... gone. And more and more of the classic/charterer the park had... vanish. (Pretty much all the Storybook stuff in the middle of the park...)
I'd say I'd love to see Herschend take over and make this once lovely themed park.. a theme park again. but seeing as how they didn't really do much to help Wild Adventures, I'm not sure who would be up to the task outside of an independent owner.
I'd also like to see Epcot get a real good makeover... Try and put in a few dark rides around World Showcase. Like say... a Ratatouille clone from Paris into the France Pavilion. Maybe a Mulan ride into China. Bring back the original plan for a Grand Carousel in the UK Pavilion. And while a pipe dream... bring back that idea for a Mount Fuji coaster in Japan.
 
And if I'm not mistaken, there was an idea for a Log Flume in Canada. Maybe if they remove the Imagination pavilion, they could make room for it.
 
Kentucky Kingdom has stupid amount of land to use and will, I'm assuming, have some great investments in the future. Don't look for that to change.

World's of Fun needs more love than **** hand-me-downs and more kiddie rides. Prowler and Patriot are fantastic and one more solid coaster would do wonders.

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To that end - would it really kill Cedar Fair to build something new for Dorney Park? Possessed, Stinger, Demon Drop - all hand-me-downs.
 
Dorney was the first park to come to mind.

I'd like to see the parks with Morgan hypers get gigas to pair with them, especially Dorney. They're in such a tough spot, though, because they're drawing on the same population as either or both of Hershey or Great Adventure, and those are some of the best coaster lineups in the world. If Dorney added a giga, an Intamin Blitz, and an RMC, then they might be in that league, but that would be $60+ million.

(Cedar Fair's issues with Intamin aside, think about a lineup of Leviathan, Steel Force, Maverick, Talon, Outlaw Run, and Hydra, though.)

Since they can't or at least won't do that, an reasonable improvement is a modest but fun GCI like Prowler. Then they're staying on the family-friendly side and not spending tons of money in a likely futile attempt to beat out Hershey and Six Flags for coasters. A MegaLite would also be fun and not so enormous, but it might be hard to advertise for a park that already has a hyper.

Edit: I guess this doesn't just have to be coasters. I'd like an upgrade of the Great Adventure food, but it's more likely that Dorney will get a stand-up RMC AquaTrax polercoaster, isn't it?
 
I actually agree with OP's thoughts entirely. Epcot was the first park to come to mind for me, and Kentucky Kingdom came to mind for different reasons.

At Epcot, Future World has been in a deteriorating state for some time now. I will say that those Soarin' improvements were needed, but I'll agree that the rest of Future World needs it more. I wish they would actually do something meaningful with the three disused pavilions.

At Kentucky Kingdom, I think they're actually in a good spot for what they are in terms of their attractions. I think they are in more desperate need of operational improvements- when I went this past May, the operations were absolutely atrocious. The only ride that was running more than one train was T3 (I wish I was kidding), but it probably would have been alright if they actually dispatched trains. We observed approximately 7-8 minute dispatch times on Lightning Run; they waited until long after everyone was seated and ready to bother checking restraints, and trains were sitting on the final brake run despite it being a one train operation. Storm Chaser was a little better than that in the morning, and it got to acceptable territory towards the afternoon. Maybe I just caught them on a particularly bad day, but I don't know how you can justify that in any situation.

I'll also contribute Six Flags St. Louis to this discussion. I gather that I'm in the minority for this one, but I actually think it's a great park; operations are pretty quick, employees are generally very friendly, I actually find it to be a nice park, and the ride collection is very good. If they got a really good star attraction, I think they'd actually have one of the better lineups in the chain. As for what that could be: I'd either say a GCI refurb of The Boss, or a new ride altogether. I've always found The Boss to have a lot of potential, and it's actually running great this season (since they removed the trims and did some off-season trackwork); it doesn't need a whole lot to put it up there with the best woodies out there, and I think a GCI refurb would be perfect.
 
Maybe thinking out of the box a bit but Pleasureland in Southport. With the park already having it's classic woodie, Cyclone (that bent lift hill was funky), it seemed to be constantly improving when Geoffrey Thompson took ownership of it, relocating King Solomon's Mines from Frontierland, adding the S&S Space Shot and installing the brand new SLC - a big ride for the park - the Traumatizer, which from my memory rode much better there than it's current home at Blackpool. This, alongside adding more permanent rides and decreasing the amount of showmen rides, was doing the park good. Then Geoffrey died and two years later the park was closed, rides relocated or, in the case of Cyclone, unfortunately demolished. To be fair, the park wasn't doing great financially but was an icon of the town for so long it seemed Geoffrey didn't want to give up on it.

Now Norman Wallis has ownership of the park and is doing remarkable considering what he was up against. It's gone back to it's roots of showmen rides but with this expansion proposal with on site accommodation I really hope it gets approved by the council and maybe he does get to install a major new coaster. There was an article where he was pictured next to what looked like a model of Knightmare, although whether Knightmare would still be in a fit state after being SBNO for so long is a different matter. Wallis seems to have the money to invest, it's just a matter of whether the council will allow him to. If the park could get back to anywhere close to what it was like in the early 2000s then it would be great not just for the town but for the park itself. I'd love to see a new woodie there in homage to Cyclone however that's a pipe dream at the moment, but maybe my childhood hometown park can become a reasonably sized park again in the future.
 
Even though I haven't been yet, I plan to do so in a few weeks, and by looking at it beforehand I think that Morey's Piers has much more potential than it utilizes. From what I've seen it's quite clean, has some interesting modern design for newer attractions, and fun community engagement - all quite progressive for a boardwalk park in Jersey.

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Unfortunately they only have one "good" coaster, the Great White (CCI Woodie), and thus there isn't much initiative for enthusiasts to visit. Every other credit is either a Vekoma or a funfair ride, and the region is very competitive coaster wise. A few years ago they were planning a new wooden coaster that hops across piers, but it apparently got canned.

Personally, to compete with Hershey and Great Adventure while not alienating families I would suggest they add a Mack multi launch, as that is something the entire Northeast is lacking. Something in between the intensities of Manta SD and Maverick, with added visual impact, would put the park back on the map.

If they did that, renovated their SLC (their 2nd "star" coaster - that's how mediocre their lineup is) and added unique flat rides, then the Eastern US could finally have a great seaside park to rival Santa Cruz and Blackpool.
 
Indiana Beach.

That park used to be THE PLACE in Indiana. Now, its a crapfest. I'm not even kidding, the place was garbage.
When APG bought the park, I actually sent Al Weber Jr (before his passing, obviously), a list of what the park needs, and when.
We talked and he "took my plans into consideration" now, I know that usually means nothing, but I'm still hopeful.

Oh yeah, and if you want to know my plans where, they included an RMC-ing of Hoosier Hurricane,
Gravity Group retracking Cornball Express, S&S replacing the trains on Steel Hawg,
and a completely new water park in a new location. Oh yeah, and a Triotec Revamp of DoLT.
 
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