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What would be your dream theme in a theme park?

Serena

Serena

Miss CoasterForce 2016
Staff member
Social Media Team
Nintendo. Jurrassic Park. Star Wars. Frozen. Uh....La Liga.

We live in a theme park world saturated with IPs. From Harry Potter to Hamtaro, fandom has found a new format in the form of an immersive theme park zone.

But which ones are missing? What pop culture would you love to see brought to life in the shape of coasters, restaurants and themeing?

For me, I would love to see an area themed to The Elder Scrolls. I mean, I guess it would pretty much look like Klugheim ? but just imagine a Skyrim ride and that soundtrack blaring out. Inns and bars you can actually walk into. Insanely detailed costume characters. Dragons. The source material is so dense, there's so much a park could do! And how gorgeous and fantasy-like would it look!

I would also love to see a Pokemon in a park. I know there used to be one in Japan, but I would love to see one with the level of detail that Nintendo World has. That would make me so happy!

How about you guys, what would be your dream theme?
 
Serena said:
For me, I would love to see an area themed to The Elder Scrolls. I mean, I guess it would pretty much look like Klugheim ? but just imagine a Skyrim ride and that soundtrack blaring out. Inns and bars you can actually walk into. Insanely detailed costume characters. Dragons. The source material is so dense, there's so much a park could do! And how gorgeous and fantasy-like would it look!
Click to expand...
That's definitely got me thinking. Whilst I doubt an entire park based on Elder Scrolls would be commercially viable, as Skyrim is clearly the area that most people know, and has mass market appeal, there's so much scope in terms of both tone, and in terms of utilizing some of the other provinces of Tamriel.

There's the sheer scope of the Imperial City, which could be an amazing area for food, retail, indoor attractions, and shows inside the arena. The amazing landscaping around Lake Rumare and the Niben. Crazy landscapes of places like Morrowind, leading to a more unusual spin on the typical fantasy setting. The twisted insanity of some of the daedric realmns, making for some very unique ride experiences. Each region definitely has its own unique identity, which would probably make for an amazing area in its own right.

I'd love to see some of the dark humour that featured in Oblivion make an appearance as well. When people mention Elder Scrolls, I initially tend to think of epic, world in peril stakes, then I think of the overall atmosphere that comes from spending time in the provinces... and then I remember that I was once ordered to assassinate somebody by dropping a moose head onto him, whilst he was sat minding his own business in his favourite chair at home.
 
I’m not sure about my personal dream theme, but I’m always surprised that The Greatest Showman doesn’t have a theme park attraction yet given its popularity. With its wide soundtrack and story, I think it would make a really good show or possibly even a dark ride of some sort.
 
I'd love to see a Pokemon Snap like dark ride. Basically like a 3D interactive shooter, but the idea is to photograph as many Pokemon as possible. Points could either be for number of Pokemon you photograph, or points based on the type/rarity/etc of Pokemon. Couple it in with real sets too and it'd be incredible. Failing that, a proper, highly detailed Pokemon land like Nintendo World would be amazing too.

For a very much 'out there' IP that will never happen, I'd love to see a scare experience themed around Silence of the Lambs. Not quite sure how it would work, but a solo, story-driven experience interacting with a cannibal where your interactions affect the story and scares. Done right and it would be mind blowing.

Also a Stranger Things Vekoma madhouse basically writes itself, just saying. Especially if you could leave with the room 'upside down'.


For a non-IP theme, even though it's already been done a few times, I think a 'gravity-free' theme has a lot more potential than has been realised. Something along the lines of Lost Gravity's style and vibe, mixed with a science museum's exhibits on zero-gravity/weightlessness in space, on a huge scale.

So yeah, very much dream-level, never-going-to-happen themes. ?
 
I would like to see a land based on the Percy Jackson / Heroes of the Olympians franchise. Even though the movies were a terrible adaption, a Disney+ show is currently in production. I think the books are already a great source material and if the show is done right, it <could> reach in Harry Potter territory in terms of scale. The Mandalorian shows that a Disney+ Show can be immensely popular.
The Greek & Roman Mythologies have so much potential for attractions / theming and based on the franchise it could be great. Just imagine a themed area with a huge Acropolis-like greek temple on the top of a mountain resembling Mount Olympus, throw in a dark ride with the cast of the Disney+ Show and it would be a perfect new land for a Disney Park (even though I don't think it will happen).
 
Great topic.

I think this might be coming to Epic Universe but I'd love to see a dark ride based on classic horror. Jason/Michael/Freddy/Leatherface, that sort of stuff. Possibly only Universal have the license to do it and wouldn't want to limit the audience by making a ride based on 18+ films so I can see why this hasn't been a thing so far. But my god, imagine the scope for dark ride scenes and the atmosphere a park like Universal could create with that source material.
 
East India Trading. No I don't mean Pirates of the Caribbean. The hustle and bustle of a dock/quayside, would be the perfect setting for a pub, a dark ride, tea cups, drop towers, and a eurofighter. Maybe it's been done but I haven't seen it. It's just such a perfect theme - easy immersion and easy integration of a whole variation of attractions.
 
Well since Star Wars is already done now, the most obvious one for me would be Lord of the Rings, or more generally Middle Earth. Plenty of scope for amazing themed areas based on Hobbiton, Rivendell, the Mines of Moria, Rohan, Gondor and Mordor, though given the medieval setting some high tech ride hardware may not be a good fit! Rides based around horses, caves and boats would all work though.

Aside from that I'm a big fan of the Fallout game series so an area based on their post-apocalyptic but 50s retro future would be cool. And on a similar dystopic theme, I'd love to see an entire land themed around the Terminator series. :)
 
Pandemic World, anyone?
Featuring the Corona Coaster, Virus: The Ride and various other attractions with names like 'Lockdown', 'The Bat', 'Outbreak', 'The Wuhan Whirl' and 'Rise of the Vaccine'.
Funded by Pfizer, operated by Merlin. ?
 
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Sooo...I've been daydreaming a lot more about a Skyrim theme park area. I've decided it would have 2 big coasters:

- a swing launch Gerstlauer (like Fury at Bobbejaanland) that always launches backwards first. The ride would be called Unrelenting Force and speakers would blast the Fus Ro Dah shout at you when it launches backwards - as if you've been hit with the Shout. I mean, come on, Unrelenting Force is a name begging to be used on a coaster! (And when we do a Live at this imaginary theme park, the trip name will obvs be Unrelenting Coaster Force)

- Coaster 2. A Soarin With Dragon clone. Except the giant dragon statue will be of Paarthurnax. Soarin With Paarthurnax.

The area will also feature a dark ride like Lego Ninjago where your hand movements activate shooty stuff. It will be themed to the College of Winterhold and the aim of the ride will be to conjure spells and blast those annoying frosty thingys that fly around Winterhold. The ride exterior will be a replica of the maginifcent College building, towering over the area like some kind of Dark Nordic Fantasy version of the Disney Castle. Please note: the area will require 76 snow machines blasting at all times.

A kids climbing area themed to Markaarth, where they can spend ages climbing up and down and up and down trying to find out where they need to be going ?

Whiterun will be the Food and merch area, with little market stalls where you can buy refreshements. Merlin Entertainments would love this as it can be marketted as The World's First Theme Park To Sell Gourd.

Well, that was fun to write! Now I just need investors...
 
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I'm gonna go a bit out of the box for this one and say an entire theme park dedicated to the work of David Lynch.

First and foremost, we gotta have a massive recreation of Twin Peaks. It would be the centerpiece of the park and its most obvious selling point. You could have the Double R Diner where you'd buy the best slice of cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee, black as a moonless night. Stay at Great Northern Hotel which is right inside the theme park like Hotel Miracosta. You can visit Run Silent, Run Drapes and get your own silent drapes to bring home. The kids'll love it. Of course, there's a trackless dark ride into the Red Room, and it is absolutely terrifying.

Oh, but you wanna talk terrifying? An. Eraserhead. Maze. No jump scares. No flashy effects. Just Eraserhead's soundscape and images from the film translated into a physical reality. Just take any scene and imagine walking right into it. Oh God and the animatronic(s) of that baby.

But there's something for the kids of course. They get to ride their own tractor with Alvin across recreations of small town America, based on the Disney film Straight Story which means, yes, this is a Disney park.

Throw in an Intamin Blitz based on Lost Highway (starts as a looping coaster ends as an airtime machine), maybe a stage show that's just the Rabbits sequence from Inland Empire, a Mulholland Drive drop tower. I don't even know how you'd do that last one but somehow it feels right, maybe do it Mystery Castle style.

Obviously, this is all in jest, but I do think that the inauthenticity and repetition that's all throughout Lynch's work would lend itself very well to a theme park setting.
 
Serena said:
- a swing launch Gerstlauer (like Fury at Bobbejaanland) that always launches backwards first. The ride would be called Unrelenting Force and speakers would blast the Fus Ro Dah shout at you when it launches backwards - as if you've been hit with the Shout. I mean, come on, Unrelenting Force is a name begging to be used on a coaster! (And when we do a Live at this imaginary theme park, the trip name will obvs be Unrelenting Coaster Force)
Click to expand...

You missed a trick there Serena, surely the first launch should just say Fus, the second should do Fus Ro, and the third should be Fus Ro Da with all three words of power!

There should also be a drop tower themed to a Skyrim horse climbing a vertical cliff.
 
I have always liked the idea of a area of a park themed to 1950's America rural martian invasion. Intamin blitz with the station based in a downed large flying saucer, which then has the launch have you emerge vertically out of the saucer with you then have elements with you winding through a corn field, Barn etc.

A ride themed to Mad Max would also work well, would probably work well with a launch. Have an animatroic of Max on the front of the train.

An inside coaster with lots of lights, lasers and smoke effects themed to night club, possibly could have to horror themed as if there is a slasher murderer after you within it.
 
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