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Theme Parks that Havent Received a coaster in Years

H

HllyIlo

Roller Poster
Are their any theme parks which not only have not Receive a coaster in ike 20 years and probaly wont for another 40.

You know the parks whos owners seem to completly neglect and never seem to add anything that whatdrives people to theme parks the most. Parks like Michigans adventure which hasent received a Brand New coaster since 1998 which as you know in computer terms is medvial. Pleasure ISalnd closed 21 years after its last new coaster. Seabreeze (home of the RMCs ancenstor Bobleds) also hasnt put n a new coaster in early 20 years and probably never will.

Can you think of Any others?

People makes jokes that Thrope and Chessington will never recive a new coastr again (Thorpe park can be attributed to DBGT being a theme park equivalent to a box office bomb causing them to cancel both their planned 2015 and 18 coasters, also the ceo at the time got realy greedy and thought that IPs were more profitavble then Rides and decided to replace them with events and key jingling) Chessington is similar hasnt gotten a new coaster in litraly half its life becuase Ceo (the same guy) thinks its a kids park and kids hate roller coasters.
But I belvie their droughts are ending just Blame covid becuase Black Mirror appered to be as step in right ditrection
 
It's a nice topic idea, and I'll probably come back to add my two cents to it, but for now ... please improve your spelling in the future. Thanks.
 
Disneyland Paris. Last coaster opened in 1995 nearly 30 years ago. Since the 2000s only two new rides have opened (Buzz and Star Tours). Given how much investment is being pumped into the Studios park next door I wouldn't be surprised if another ten years go past without a new ride in the main park, let alone a coaster.

Given how many visitors are international one off guests you can see how they've got away with keeping attendance figures steady with minimal investments. That and the fact so many of the day one rides such as Pirates and Phantom Manor are incredible and timeless.

Still I was underwhelmed with my first visit a few years ago. From stepping off the Eurostar and wandering round Disney Village it's like you enter a time warp back to the 90s. Everything is retro but not in a cool way, it looks dreary.
 
I can think of Palace Pier in Brighton…. Their last caster was 2000 I think (Wild Mouse) I know for a fact that the guys are pushing for replacements but I can’t see any new coasters for a long time. Well with the managing company buying Lightwater Valley and all that.
 
Living in Europe I have to think of spanish parks in general and the Looping Group parks. I know there have been some additions in the park of the Looping group but I consider them to be very cost effective and bland.

At least Warner Madrid seems to get a new coaster but let's see how this project develops due to Covid.
 
I think this the answer to this question needs a slight caveat to avoid the extreme outliers. The situation is more notable if the park already has a lot of operating coasters, but no new additions in many years. Helpfully, RCDB has a list of parks sorted by the number of coasters:

Amusement Park Search Results

Looking for statistics on the fastest, tallest or longest roller coasters? Find it all and much more with the interactive Roller Coaster Database.
rcdb.com

Nothing really stands out on the first page. It turns out that the parks that have the most coasters also are pretty good at renewing their lineup. I mean, otherwise they would not have been in that situation in the first place. As far as I can tell, all of the parks on that page have received a new coaster over the past few years, or have some in the pipeline. If I had to mention a park there, maybe Flamingo Land would be a candidate, with its most recent coasters opening in 2013 (those being a Zamperla spinner and a Volare, hooray), but there are many worse-off parks out there. Of course, pre-Icon, I'd have mentioned Blackpool Pleasure Beach in a heartbeat.

On the second page, one can make some honorable mentions. The first one to stand out in my eyes is La Ronde, with a lineup of 8 coasters, yet the most recent one was built in 2010 and that was a second-hand SLC. It also has one coaster in the pipeline, the dreaded Green Lantern from SFMM, but it seems to be on hold indefinitely. The most recent coaster custom built for the park was Goliath back in 2006.

Greenland in Japan is another prime candidate. Although less notable in enthusiast circles than La Ronde, it has 9 operating coasters, with the youngest being a powered coaster from 2007. The second youngest is a portable, powered coaster from 2005 - a Zamperla dragon if I'm not entirely mistaken. But it's not like the park is some sort of cheap graveyard for second-hand rides from bargain bin manufacturers (at least it didn't start out that way). It has got fairly large coasters like a Togo Ultratwister, a Vekoma SLC, and of course the iconic Gao.

Nasu Highland Park, another Japanese entry, seems to be in a similar situation. 9 operating coasters, some of which are quite big and clearly custom-designed, but the newest was from 2009 and that was a small family coaster. Until 2017, its coaster count was a whooping 11, but two coasters have gone SBNO since then. The park really seems down on its luck. Japan really has a lot of such parks, another example with 8 coasters being Rusutsu Resort. That economic crisis of the 1990s really pushed a lot of places into stagnation.

Back to the West for a bit, Valleyfair! might be one of the most screwed-over Cedar Fair parks. To think that this is one of the two parks that gave the chain its name ... Let's just say that that other park is a tiny bit better off in the coaster department these days. Valleyfair!, however, racked up a count of 8 coasters, but apart from a Zamperla powered Single Helix coaster (relocated from Dorney Park ... you know you've hit rock bottom when you start receiving stuff from that place), it hasn't seen anything new since 2007. And that relocated Zamperla arrived in 2011.

Speaking of Dorney Park, it must have done something to end up on Cedar Fair's naughty list too. As late as 2005, the chain apparently had enough faith in it to build a custom B&M Floorless coaster there. That was also the most recent coaster the park got built custom. It received a relocated Intamin Impulse in 2008, and a Boomerang Invertigo in 2012 (which has already been removed), and that's it. Someone in the chain really must hate the place.

And yeah, just copypaste the above about Worlds of Fun and Michigan's Adventure too. Clearly, Cedar Fair figured that with Six Flags going bankrupt, the required effort to stay competitive was pretty much zero, and then they rounded down and called it a day. Yet even Six Flags manages to scrape together a few morsels to throw to its lesser parks (the bigger parks mostly get morsels too, of course). Yet Cedar Fair seems to put all the chain's earnings into the parks that are already doing well, completely neglecting their smaller parks.

Shoutout to Everland too. It never had that many coasters (5 at the most), but for a fleeting moment in time it housed both Eagle Fortress and T-Express, two of the most well-renowned coasters ever. And then they went all "Naah, let's throw away the former, and never spend money on coasters again." One would think a park capable of building a custom Intamin Plug'n'Play, one of the biggest woodies in the world, would be interested in further development afterwards, but no. The place fizzled out completely after 2008.

The less said about Parque Warner Madrid, the better. Five new coasters in 2002. One kiddie in 2009. Total silence since then.
 
Funtown Splashtown U.S.A. can be a great candidiate for this, they haven't gotten a new Roller Coaster since they got a relocated Wild Mouse back in May 2009 to replace their old SDC Galaxi Coaster from 1978. Their only other coaster is a CCI Wooden Coaster from 1998. They haven't gotten a new Roller Coaster for 12 years now.
 
HllyIlo said:
People makes jokes that Thrope and Chessington will never recive a new coastr again (Thorpe park can be attributed to DBGT being a theme park equivalent to a box office bomb causing them to cancel both their planned 2015 and 18 coasters, also the ceo at the time got realy greedy and thought that IPs were more profitavble then Rides and decided to replace them with events and key jingling)
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This..isn't quite right.

Whilst it's true that Ghost Train wasn't a success, it didn't cause them to cancel coasters per se, and it definitely didn't cause them to cancel their planned 2015 and 2018 coasters.

If we rewind a decade ago, Thorpe were investing in coasters once every 3 years. Swarm had been announced for 2012, and there were loose thoughts from within the company that 2015 would be another year for a major coaster, as would 2018. After Swarm however, there was a shift it strategy, and the park would be getting major rides once every 4 years.

Furthermore, the park felt that something different was needed in the park. Coaster after coaster after coaster can work, but the need for an indoor attraction was there and tempting. Quite early on in the process for deciding what the major investment for 2016 should be it was decided a dark ride would be a better risk than a coaster.
(So, I guess you could argue that DBGT 'cancelled' a coaster project, but more accurately, it replaced one. And there were no hard plans for what that coaster could have been, so it's a mute point)

After Ghost Train, the next major investment was due in 2020. Merlin made it no secret that they were cutting back spending at their parks, and any ideas for a major investment in 2020 were eventually scrapped. Whilst I'm sure Ghost Train's lack of success didn't help, it wasn't the sole reason.

[Fun aside: I genuinely wonder how things would have turned out for Thorpe if they had invested in a new coaster to open in 2020. Would it have opened before lockdown? Would the park have delayed it until 2021? Would the park actually have ended up in a worst state? Many interesting questions]


I don't really have any parks to add to the list. Chessington is one that jumps out, but they're getting one to (seemingly/hopefully) open after a 19 year gap. If you look back, the likes of Walibi Belgium and Holland had to wait 10 and 14 years respectively before getting new coasters a few years back (and the former you could argue is more like 15 given the failure of Vertigo).
 
oriolat2 said:
Don't worry. It's going to be fixed very soon ;-)
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"Fixed" would not just be breaking the streak with one coaster followed by years more of silence. It would be realizing that five coasters from 2002 will reach the end of their lifespans at roughly the same time, and starting to prepare renewal of the lineup before that day comes.
 
Pokemaniac said:
"Fixed" would not just be breaking the streak with one coaster followed by years more of silence. It would be realizing that five coasters from 2002 will reach the end of their lifespans at roughly the same time, and starting to prepare renewal of the lineup before that day comes.
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There are always some parks which seem to gamble with the lineup of their rollercoasters' lifespans. Dreamworld AUS had to close two major coasters while "only" open one new one. Of course quantity is not the only thing to consider when it comes to attracting visitors.
 
Pokemaniac said:
"Fixed" would not just be breaking the streak with one coaster followed by years more of silence. It would be realizing that five coasters from 2002 will reach the end of their lifespans at roughly the same time, and starting to prepare renewal of the lineup before that day comes.
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What do you expect? It's Parque Reunidos: as if they had a mid-term plan let alone a long-time plan to renew their park offerings while maintaining their current line-up.

Spain at its best.
 
oriolat2 said:
What do you expect? It's Parque Reunidos: as if they had a mid-term plan let alone a long-time plan to renew their park offerings while maintaining their current line-up.

Spain at its best.
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At least they are providing us with an interesting case study of what will happen when a chain full of parks rests on its laurels for too long, and realizes one day that most of their hardware has become antiquated. At this rate, many of their parks will one day have half a dozen old and rickety attractions for every one that's less than halfway through its lifespan. And not just coasters either; the neglect stretches to buildings and infrastructure too. The money required for necessary upkeep has passed through the hands of the parks, but it has continuously been pumped out for shareholder profits instead of putting aside sums to keep the park running.

This year the park has five 20 years old coasters and one 10 years old. Next year, that may change into five 20 years old coasters, one 10 years old, and one new. But if the situation in 2031 is five 30 years old coasters, one 20 years old, and one 10 years old, they'll still have the same "death wave" coming their way. They can swap one of the five when their next coaster comes, and another in ten years, but at that rate of replacement they'll be banking on the last of them (and each subsequent one) to operate to the age of sixty if they want to maintain a constant number of coasters in the long run. That's not necessarily unrealistic, but it requires good upkeep and a public willing to return time and time again for the same attractions.

Assume instead that the coasters become too expensive to operate around the age of 40, but that they're replacing one coaster in their current lineup every 10 years starting as soon as they get a new coaster (presumably in 2022), keeping the coaster count stable at 6. That still means they'll only get around to replace three of the 2002 coasters by the time the remaining two declare readiness for the scrapheap in 2042. The park would then have to reduce its coaster lineup by a third, eventually take on the mountainous expense of replacing three coasters in quick succession. Downsizing (potentially losing revenue) or huge costs (impacting the annual profits for a while), those are the two choices.

However, those are just the five 2002 coasters at Parque Warner Madrid. Parques Reunidos operates 34 coasters built between 1996 and 2006. They could put up the cash to replace several retirement-ready coasters at one park in a short timespan, but to do so for dozens of coasters within a few years? I somehow doubt that will happen. This is the chain that reportedly had an investment budget of 30 million Euros for all of their 18 parks combined in 2018.

What I suspect will happen is that they will sell off their various parks when this day arrives for each of them. A park containing 30 attractions, but with 25 of them being more than 25 years old, is at the same time a poor guest draw and a huge expense waiting to happen. Especially if that's also true of the park's buildings, staff facilities, electric substations, plumbing, sewage systems, signage, storehouses, and food preparation areas, and the experienced staff are all near retirement age and nobody has been trained to replace them. When time catches up with most of the park infrastructure at once, the park's condition may collapse entirely. So that would be the time for the holding firm to release their hold, sell whatever remains in a salvageable state, and leave the carcass for somebody else to clear up. Maybe selling the land for housing development or something.

That's what making me so angry about Parques Reunidos. They skimp on maintenance and leave the parks to rot, then get ready to bail out once the wear and tear becomes too big to ignore, leaving somebody else with the job of recovering if at all possible, and make money at every step of the process. Their relationship to the parks can best be described as parasitic. Adding nothing, but still sucking the resources dry, then ditching it to repeat the trick again at other parks.

But for all the future woes that await Parques Reunidos expense-wise, at least they're not Six Flags, I guess. That chain will have to contend with a much bigger and more severe wave of coaster retirements across every park at some point. They are currently operating 64 coasters built in 1996-2006, many of which are huge thrill machines that form the attraction backbone for their parks. Said backbones have barely seen any new vertebrae on a comparable scale added for a decade and a half now. Just look to La Ronde again. Nine coasters, but only one younger than 15 years (and that's Vipère ... assuming they even build it) and three that have already passed 30. Bringing that place up to par will take a sustained effort over many years, and Six Flags is currently operating on the "please write on both sides of every sheet of paper" level of austerity. The development of Six Flags as the 1990's ride begin to retire will be interesting to watch.
 
I thought Parques Reunidos were really starting to invest more heavily? The last 5 years have seen many of their parks get big things (for instance, MPG has had Movie Park Studios & Star Trek, Bobbejaanland has had Fury/Land of Legends, and Mirabilandia has had Ducati World, as well as Gold Rush at Slagharen), and I know many more are in the pipeline (for instance, TusenFryd’s Gerst invert or Parque Warner’s alleged launch coaster). I’ll admit it always makes me scratch my head a little when people say that Parques Reunidos doesn’t invest, as from where I’m standing, a number of their parks have certainly had big things in recent times?

Also, what is it with this idea that coasters have a set shelf life, after which they must close, meaning that certain parks will have a substantial overhaul of the lineup to do at a certain point in time? These coasters surely won’t all “expire” at once in some big “death wave”; I get that things wear out over time, and things will of course need maintenance as they get older, but coasters can last a long time, and I think lifespan very much depends on the ride. For my money; while we’ve still got the likes of Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland (365 day park) plodding along at 62 years old without having had any major work done to it, and both of WDW’s headline “Mountain” coasters (365 day park) having exceeded 40 years of age without major work being done, as well as some of Cedar Point’s Arrow coasters having hit 50 years of age or being very close to it without any major work, then I don’t think we need to worry too much about some substantial redox of substantially younger, less operated (cycled less) coasters any time soon.
 
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Spare a thought for Taiwan. Back when I joined these forums it was a bit of a coaster Mecca for some with some unique, interesting rides, but it's been really stagnant. Looking at their major parks:

Leofoo Village: last coaster was in 2002, and that was a very small spinner.

Janfusun Fancyworld: also a family coaster in 2002.

Discovery World: oh look, latest coaster was 2002, but at least it was a major one (Gravity Max).

Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village: better with a Mack Supersplash in 2008, but that was the only addition since the '90s

EDA Theme Park: a "new" park which opened with 4 coasters in 2010 and have added nothing since.
 
Matt N said:
I thought Parques Reunidos were really starting to invest more heavily? The last 5 years have seen many of their parks get big things (for instance, MPG has had Movie Park Studios & Star Trek, Bobbejaanland has had Fury/Land of Legends, and Mirabilandia has had Ducati World, as well as Gold Rush at Slagharen), and I know many more are in the pipeline (for instance, TusenFryd’s Gerst invert or Parque Warner’s alleged launch coaster). I’ll admit it always makes me scratch my head a little when people say that Parques Reunidos doesn’t invest, as from where I’m standing, a number of their parks have certainly had big things in recent times?
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You can still tell when you're at those parks (thinking of Movie Park and Bobbejaanland in my case) where the resources are going and where they aren't, though. With Movie Park, anything older than Van Helsing's Factory (or majorly refurbished since then like the water rides) looked worn and tired, and that's the PR park with what looks to have the best investment rate at the current. Bobbejaanland had Land of Legends looking great, but the rest of the park felt stuck in a bygone era.

And even if the investments are starting to pick up in those places, they've still got a lot more parks where they aren't, and it's a question if those investments are even happening fast enough.

For my money; while we’ve still got the likes of Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland (365 day park) plodding along at 62 years old without having had any major work done to it,
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I mean, doesn't Matterhorn go down for refurbishment like every other week lol
 
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