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Nostalgia within theme parks; what are your thoughts on it?

Matt N

CF Legend
Disclaimer: I apologise in advance, as this post is quite long. There is a TL;DR at the bottom for those who would like one.
Hi guys. As many of you probably know, Duel, Alton Towers’ interactive haunted house-style dark ride, recently closed for a retheme and is reopening in 2023. Speculation is rife throughout the UK enthusiast community about what this retheme could entail and what it might be like, but one thing I’ve noticed is that there are a considerable number of people who wish for the park to go down the nostalgia route. These people are clamouring for the ride to be returned brick by brick to exactly how it was when it first opened in 1992, as though the 2003 Duel revamp never happened. There’s quite a considerable group of people who believe this, and it’s part of a wider trend of nostalgia that seems to have gripped the UK enthusiast community as of late. There are now quite a few different nostalgic calls to “bring back” old rides being made around the community, including:
  • “Revert Duel back to the Haunted House”
  • “Revert Galactica back to Air”
  • “Revive Pirate Adventure”
  • “Revive Rocky Express”
  • “Revert The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure back to Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks”
  • “Revive Ripsaw, Boneshaker and Dynamo”
  • “If Project Horizon isn’t a Black Hole revival, they’re missing a trick”
My basic point is; a considerable wave of nostalgia seems to have gripped the UK enthusiast community as of late, with clamouring for old attractions from the 90s and early 2000s to return being quite commonplace at the moment. So my question to you today is; what are your thoughts on the use of nostalgia within theme parks? What are your thoughts on parks “bringing back” old attractions, or making nods to the past?

Personally, I’m a bit mixed on nostalgia myself.

I’m perfectly happy with minor displays of nostalgia at parks. Subtle nods to the past scattered within a new attraction? Great! Loads of old artwork and concepts being displayed, like in the Rollercoaster Restaurant at Alton Towers? Love it! Wanting to sell retro merchandise? Go for it! Relatively minor nostalgic touches are nice for those who look for this sort of stuff and don’t really affect the experience at large for the average guest, so these can certainly be pretty good when done well, in my view.

However, I’m not so keen on the prospect of more major scale nostalgia, such as “bringing back” old rides. Personally, I think parks should move forward into the future rather than stay in the past when it comes to new attractions, and I am personally sceptical as to whether “bringing back” old attractions would have a happy ending, for multiple reasons.

Basically, my thought process is that “bringing back” an old attraction would please relatively few people, because the average guest likely wouldn’t know what the old attraction being “revived” was, or even if they did, they likely wouldn’t understand why the park was “reviving” an old ride that closed years prior. I also have a concern that the ride of old may not resonate with modern crowds in the same way as it did with original crowds, no matter how good it was when it originally operated.

Whereas I fear that the enthusiasts and die hard nostalgics whom such a move would be aimed at would be critical of the fact that the “revival” wasn’t enough like the old ride, because let’s face it, a “revival” can never be the exact same ride as the original attraction being “revived” was, no matter how good the intentions of your creative team are. That’s simply impossible due to technological advancements, part of or all of the old ride having been scrapped, and simply due to the fact that no matter how hard you try, you cannot rewrite history to pretend that the removal of the original ride never happened. That’s why I always say “revival” in inverted commas, because it wouldn’t be a true “revival”, but rather a new experience with the same name.

For instance, one of the main nostalgic wishes as of late is for Duel at Alton Towers to be reverted back to the Haunted House exactly as it was in 1992, with all of the original props being kept, the Swamp finale being rebuilt and the Graham Smart soundtracks and original facade being fully restored. My concern here is that the original HH closed 20 years ago, so there is likely a considerable number of Alton Towers guests who don’t know about it, and even those that do would probably be somewhat bemused at why it was “returning”. I also have concerns that the ride as built in 1992, as good as it was back then, might not resonate with 2023 guests in the same way.

On the other side of the coin, I fear that the enthusiasts such a move would be aimed towards would be critical that a “revival” of the HH wouldn’t be enough like the original 1992 ride. Given that I’ve heard “it doesn’t even smell like it did in 1992” being banded about as a criticism of Duel, I think the nostalgics would be keen for every little detail to be restored to exactly how it was before in the event of a “revival”, which I fear simply wouldn’t be possible. The entire 1992 finale was demolished prior to the Duel revamp in 2003, Keith Sparks (the original designer) is dead, certain technologies used in the 1992 original are now obsolete and have long been succeeded by modern alternatives (for instance, the ride would have to be lit very differently nowadays, which would make the original scenes look very different to how they were originally supposed to look)… there’s a lot of factors that mean the ride simply would not be the same ride as it was in 1992 no matter how hard the creative team tried to make it the same. You cannot rewrite history and pretend that Duel never happened; there was only one of the original HH, and it closed in 2002. A “revival” of the HH would be a totally different attraction that simply shares the same name; it wouldn’t actually bring the old experience back.

But what are your thoughts on the use of nostalgia in theme parks, and the prospect of “bringing back” old attractions and themes?
TL;DR: Given the recent clamouring for many old attractions to return within the UK enthusiast community, I’d be keen to know your thoughts on the use of nostalgia within theme parks.

Overall, I have a mixed opinion on the use of nostalgia within theme parks. I don’t mind minor displays of nostalgia, as these can be fun for those who look for such things and don’t really affect the experience at large.

However, I am less keen on major scale nostalgia, such as “reviving” old attractions and themes, simply because I feel that you can’t rewrite history no matter how hard you try, and that a “revived” ride would never be the same as the original attraction. I also feel that a “revival” of an old attraction wouldn’t really resonate with the average guest.
 
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I think rethemes etc should be using modern effects etc that weren’t available when the original ride was created however sticking to the original general theme is fine, as is having a nod to some of the original features. Regarding Duel specifically, I’d like to see a modern haunted house/ghost train ride in there full of innovative effects (but please whatever happens no VR! it just doesn’t work on a high throughput ride)
 
I don't think it's all down to Nostalgia. A lot of those examples,especially Bubblework, come down to the former attractions being superior (or remembered as superior) compared to their recent versions.

I never rode The Haunted House, only Duel, but seeing videos I can see how much better the old one was.
 
As much as I prefer a lot of the "old' versions of rides, I don't think parks like reverting because it's difficult to market, plus it's like they're admitting a mistake.

With Duel, I think they should go with a new haunted house theme, perhaps with throwbacks to the original. I'm sure the original was good (never rode it) but unless there was something particularly unique about it I'd rather see something new.

The Bubbleworks re-theme was baffling because it was not only unique but it was one of Chessington's most famous rides, and not just among enthusiasts. People I know locally still talk about it as though it's still there. I think it could realistically be brought back and people would be there for it.

Not in the UK, but the #1 ride I think should return to its original theme is Disneyland Paris' Space Mountain. It was such a unique and beautifully done theme and it would be easy to revive because most of the original Jules Verne theming is still there (it's almost as though Disney were never fully committed to the changes). They would only need to get rid of the rubbish star projections and bring back the music, the moon face, and the queue line windows and they'd be mostly there. Just keep the technical upgrades.
 
Sometimes. Things like the Haunted House stuff though, I feel like it has a lot of potential to be something amazing and approaching Disney level theming. The guns and targets would massively take away from that.
 
The Bubbleworks re-theme was baffling because it was not only unique but it was one of Chessington's most famous rides, and not just among enthusiasts. People I know locally still talk about it as though it's still there. I think it could realistically be brought back and people would be there for it.

So what I don't get about this sort of opinion is why we're not looking at who the target is? Julia Donaldson and her books are amazingling popular with primary children and plenty of adults grew up with the Gruffalo. It's an actual selling point to get people into the park which is ultimately any Theme Park's aim.

Also whilst there may well be some people who want an original idea more people will be attracted if an IP is attached than if not. Look at Paultons, do you think it would be anywhere near as sucessful as it is now without Peppa Pig attached? When you go there the Peppa Pig area is alway far busier than the rest of the park. Theme Parks are businesses and we tend to lose sight of that.

I personally would love a Theme Park based around history and famous things that have happened however that is never going to happen as it would basically just be me there. Unless of course you attach a Horrible Histories IP to it and then it could work.
 
Lots of good opinions in here. Personally I love a bit of nostalgia, but I also like good rides.
I wouldn't want to see the Black Hole or Corkscrew return for example, but I would like to see the theme of Bubbleworks return with an improved ride system, or the original HH with updated effects and vehicles.

Going with IPs works for getting people into the park, using a healthy mix of IP and in house theming is my preferred way of doing it. Alton has it working well, not too many IP's and some good historic in house stuff.

Going back to historical rides doesn't work though, outdated mechanics are just that, outdated. But do a new black hole with a fab new gen Vekoma in the tent and I'd be clamouring over ya'll to get on it.
 
Overall Nostalgia with a capital N makes for smart amusement park business. It's a way for park visitors to relive in their own lived experience, with (honestly) little-to-no capital investment, relative to building an entire new attraction or roller coaster. In essence, in a pessimistic way, it's a way to slap a new coat of paint on existing assets to call it a "throwback" and new attraction.

Here in the States, many park chains over dwell in honoring park "history" - renaming rides to previous existing attractions, retheming sections of the park to "as they were on opening day", etc. This has especially become acute for a number of parks celebrating anniversaries: here in Ohio, Cedar Point is wrapping up its 150th anniversary, and Kings Island their 50th. It has even crossed into quasi ironic territory, as some rides are be re-nostalgia...ized? such as Calypso, which was renamed to Tiki Twirl to honor a previous spinning attraction, which will be renamed to Calypso next year for CP's Boardwalk addition to honor... itself?

At any rate, it's all good in my books. Above all else, I do have affinity for parks that appreciate their own history and lineage, rather than whitewashing with big, flashy marketing and attractions that don't have much resonance beyond a ride or two.
 
I'm almost always in favor of nostalgia. I struggle to think of many cases where I haven't liked it. More often than not, I feel most instances in the US are a result of abandoning IP, such as Kennywood transforming Garfield back into the Old Mill or Six Flags Great Adventure transforming Bizarro back into Medusa.

I probably have a particularly favorable view on nostalgia due to Kings Island being my home park when I was growing up. I absolutely loved the Paramount era and was pretty disappointed with how Cedar Fair transformed and operated the park during its first several years of ownership. The upkeep felt lazy; uninspired rebadging of IP-based attractions, giving up on the garden clock and calendar, elimination of special effects on attractions. For the longest time, I did not have a favorable view of CF's ownership. I started to see a shift around the time that Banshee was built though, which coincidentally is when the park started to incorporate nostalgia. They installed the Son of Beast eternal flame in Banshee's queue, which was a nice touch. They also gave Flight Deck the nostalgic retheme to the Bat, which I particularly appreciated. Not only did it dig deeper into the park's history, but it also eliminated the Flight Deck moniker and theme which I always saw as a disappointing reminder of what once was a fun, reasonably well done Top Gun theme.

KI/CF have really latched onto it as shown with the numerous nostalgic references throughout the Orion queue and the fact that they've gone all in with the nostalgic merch, which I'm not mad about. Obviously, I'm fixating on one park, but I generally love it. Afterall, nostalgia itself is something that harkens back to happy times.

It has even crossed into quasi ironic territory, as some rides are be re-nostalgia...ized? such as Calypso, which was renamed to Tiki Twirl to honor a previous spinning attraction, which will be renamed to Calypso next year for CP's Boardwalk addition to honor... itself?
This might actually be the rare case where I don't love it. Once upon a time, I operated Calypso, so to have it renamed back to Calypso in a nostalgic move just makes me feel... old. 😆
 
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