Most surprising addition to a theme park?

[Gazza]

Efteling getting a B&M dive coaster. Seems part of the furniture now but at the time it was announced it was really shocking!

I didn't think so myself. To me, a "good" / classy park with high attendance getting a B&M almost seems a rite of passage.

Though on that topic, Holiday World getting a B&M wing considering most of their other mechanical rides seem cheaper.

As for the topic, I sort of felt that way about Energylandia initially when they were building AAA rides in close sucession. I mean nothing would shock me now so if they get a Giga or something it'll be totally be normal.

 

[CanobieFan]

FunSpot Atlanta getting a full scale RMC beast, seems a little out of place.

 

[nadroJ]

I didn't think so myself. To me, a "good" / classy park with high attendance getting a B&M almost seems a rite of passage.

I think before that though B&M had always been associated with big and intense coasters - something on paper than just doesn't fit the magical family brand of Efteling. Of course, in hindsight we can see it fits perfectly but when it was announced it felt a bit like...Oblivion for Efteling? What??

 

[Hutch]

I think it still goes to Wildfire at Kolmarden.

People have mentioned unusual or surprising models popping up at other parks, but this is was freaking zoo building a giant RMC. Did anyone know this place existed before they announced it? I certainly didn't.

 

[Ries]

• Ride to Happiness at Plopsaland de Panne: Now this is an interesting one. In spite of the ride itself being bigger & arguably more thrilling than anything else Plopsaland had built prior to it coaster-wise, I wouldn’t say the ride itself was the most surprising element of this project for me; it wasn’t Plopsa’s first foray into thrill rides, and in spite of me still being rather surprised by it, Mack coasters aren’t usually the most intense, so a Mack fit nicely with Plopsa’s target audience. The bit that surprised me most about this project was the theme; as much as everything I’ve seen of this coaster aesthetics-wise looks absolutely gorgeous, I can’t have been the only one who thought that Plopsa building a coaster themed to an 18+ music festival was a surprising choice, if nothing else; it seemed completely at odds with the rest of the park. While I certainly get the rationale behind the choice (maybe they’re looking to appeal to the older demographic a little more?), and the ride looks amazing, this one certainly surprised me!

But what additions to theme parks have really surprised you?

I agree with you here. It is a more thrilling coaster than they had before. But with a Mack launch it could've gone the other way. The coaster looks awesome and it invites you to ride. That said: The 18+ dance festival theme in a Plopsa park was really weird for me. Especially when Plopsa doesn't really felt for that the older demographic just recent. You can see it in wait times as well. They are very short for a new ride. While other rides in the park have way longer lines. And Kondaa has long waits as well.

 

[Matt N]

I agree with you here. It is a more thrilling coaster than they had before. But with a Mack launch it could've gone the other way. The coaster looks awesome and it invites you to ride. That said: The 18+ dance festival theme in a Plopsa park was really weird for me. Especially when Plopsa doesn't really felt for that the older demographic just recent. You can see it in wait times as well. They are very short for a new ride. While other rides in the park have way longer lines. And Kondaa has long waits as well.

Interesting to observe about wait times… thanks for your local perspective! Maybe Plopsa could have done with gradually easing the park towards this market as opposed to going all in straight away with a big coaster?

As you mention it, is Kondaa back open now after the floods?

 

[Ries]

Interesting to observe about wait times… thanks for your local perspective! Maybe Plopsa could have done with gradually easing the park towards this market as opposed to going all in straight away with a big coaster?

As you mention it, is Kondaa back open now after the floods?

I'm not local enough to just go over there unfortunately. The wait times and experiences I read on a dutch coaster forum. They were speaking of 15 minutes. Which is not much for a new coaster, for the summer and for a fairly big park. They also spoke about Heidi the ride was one hour wait.
The Plopsa perspective I read in an interview with the park director. I searched for it, couldn't find it at the moment. So easing in would've been a better option if you ask me.

I went to the Walibi site to check for Kondaa, it says opening in October.

 

[Hixee]

I wonder how much of that perceived lack of popularity is more down to the fact that it's also a marked step up in throughput compared to what they have before. I wonder how the passengers-per-day versus average-queue-length balance works out.

Interesting either way, I think. I like to think it's good they started somewhere - dream big and all that.

 

[Matt N]

I wonder how much of that perceived lack of popularity is more down to the fact that it's also a marked step up in throughput compared to what they have before. I wonder how the passengers-per-day versus average-queue-length balance works out.

Interesting either way, I think. I like to think it's good they started somewhere - dream big and all that.

That’s a good point, actually; are Plopsa’s other throughputs quite low, then?

 

[Hixee]

That’s a good point, actually; are Plopsa’s other throughputs quite low, then?

I mean, I don't think any of them are inherently awful (bearing in mind the scale of the park too), but they're definitely a step down from what RTH will do. Either small trains (Anubis), single trains (powered cred and the family coasters), no MCBR (Heidi) or a combination of all three.

I've not been to the park since pre-Heidi though, so I've got no idea how well they run things or if they're only half filling one train on RTH, so...

 

[Boodangy]

This is much smaller scale because I don't actively really think about parks abroad and their acquisitions, but a couple years back my local park Linnanmäki got a Heavy Rotation flat ride from Technical Park, which was really weird. A decently obscure flat ride of which only a couple have been ever built, all of them going to the European fair circuit but one (still a travelling model) went to an American park and all built quite some time ago.

In fact I was expecting it so little that I posted in our local Finnish forum that I wished the new ride in that spot would be a Heavy Rotation or Moondance but I heavily doubt it so it was just my wildest fantasies. Couple weeks later planning permissions say Heavy Rotation.

This was a more surprising addition at the end of the day compared to Taiga, since we in the community knew Linnanmäki was getting a large scale coaster soon and in addition plans from other manufacturers had leaked for Taigas location so we were somewhat prepared.

 

[Tulum]

Oh, and Dæmonen for Tivoli Copenhagen. So compact and nicely themed. A B&M for a Tivoli is still such a surprise. Unfortunately it still let's me hope for another major coaster for the park but it doesn't have enough space.

 

[cookie]

I wonder how much of that perceived lack of popularity is more down to the fact that it's also a marked step up in throughput compared to what they have before. I wonder how the passengers-per-day versus average-queue-length balance works out.

Interesting either way, I think. I like to think it's good they started somewhere - dream big and all that.

Plopsaland also has a problem with slow ops on anything other than RTH from my experience. Anubis and Heidi should not have been stacking as badly as they did given the small trains on both.

 

[Y. Kim]

Either small trains (Anubis), single trains (powered cred and the family coasters), no MCBR (Heidi) or a combination of all three.

Def in my local park. Phaethon is though great addition, but only 1 train available (RCDB says 2 but 1 in track) and SLOW operarion. (nearly 4 min) No MCBR is pretty acceptable as it focuses on quick paced ride.

As the number of visitor grows, Draken(2018) has 2 train but smaller train than it's original version. Faster ops than Phaethon but has 2:40 operation, so stacking is prevalent on weekends.
Find the invert criticized as the queue grows 60+min on weekends due to 1 train ops and slow ops.