I305 - Despite being a great ride it really is a failure in terms of ridership. You can go on a busy day and I305 will most likely be a station wait just because people are either too afraid to ride it or it's just too intense for people to go again. If KD got a hyper I think the ridership will go up since people will have a stepping stone as there is nothing in the park close to 300 ft besides the drop tower and windseeker.
Didn't I305 also have to be reprofiled 2 or 3 times in its opening year, and I also heard from one of Coaster Studios' early Vlogs that it had an extended period of downtime in 2013?
^Yeah, gonna have to second what Matt said there, DBGT was a definite flop. There are a handful of folks who like it, I guess, and yes there have been some 'improvements' to it since it first opened... but nah. It's still turd. It doesn't matter what they do to it, the project was doomed as soon as someone said "I know - instead of a new RMC, let's spend X million quid on an experimental VR ghost train."
Quite a ballsy move on Thorpe's part, I'll give them that, but also a stooopid one that I'm quite certain didn't pay off in the way they hoped it would.
And I daresay if you asked Nick Varney he'd probably agree that, all things considered, The Smiler has been more trouble than it's worth.
With regards to DBGT, I do admire Thorpe for putting in a dark ride, as it was a clear gap in their lineup, but I'm not sure if they went about it in the right way. If DBGT had been a straightforward, tracked (or trackless) dark ride, without all of the bells and whistles that DBGT has, then I'm sure it would have been a brilliant success. I would happily have queued for it had it been a straightforward dark ride, like Hex or Spider-Man or Forbidden Journey. Well, I use the term straightforward very loosely, of course, because those rides have many bells and whistles associated with them too. But you get what I mean. However, DBGT features many gizmos that those rides don't feature; VR, actors, a very complicated ride system, lots of complicated illusions etc. Also, the reason I wouldn't queue for DBGT now is because I'm really not into attractions with scare actors in. I'll happily ride most coasters, flat rides, water rides or dark rides, but I am not into attractions with scare actors in them at all, especially where close interaction (e.g. touching and jumping in your face etc.) is involved. I know that a lot of people (probably most people who visit Thorpe) do like that sort of thing, but they are alienating a portion of their clientele by including scare actors in DBGT and putting an age restriction on it, if you get what I mean. Basically, before I go off on too much of a tangent, the point I'm trying to get across is that DBGT probably sounded good on paper, but didn't end up working as well as hoped in practise. For all I know, it might be a really good ride that works excellently, but I'm just going off of what I've heard and what I know about the attraction.
With regards to Smiler, I'm not sure if that classes as a flop in the same way that some of the others in this topic do, but it still had its fair share of problems. For starters, the ride opened 2 months later than planned. It also had a very problematic opening year, what with the structural issues (e.g. bolts falling off) and the multiple stalling occasions. And we can't forget the 2015 incident, which was life-changing for everyone affected and arguably Alton Towers' reputation. However, I would not class the ride as a flop in the same way as some of the others in this topic for many reasons, including:
- The ride has been much more reliable post-2015.
- It did actually increase guest figures by quite a bit once it opened.
- It was (and still is) massively popular. Many GP members that I know absolutely love the ride (and I must admit I do, too, as controversial of an opinion as that is.), with it being the ride that many people think of and rave about at the mere mention of Alton Towers.
Those are just my opinions, though.
Oh, and I just thought of another arguable flop that I'm surprised nobody has mentioned yet; Son of Beast at Kings Island. The problems started from before the ride even opened, with RCCA reportedly being fired by Kings Island early on in the construction process and a 15-foot rough patch being found in the track. Then, throughout its life, there were many problems, including with wood cracking amongst other problems. The ride's signature loop was then removed to accommodate lighter trains, and it was finished off in 2009 after a woman reportedly suffered an aneurysm on it; it was just 9 years old. It was also considered by many who rode it to be very, very rough.
P.S. Sorry for long post. Also, sorry if any of these aren't flops.
