Biggest Amusement Industry Mess Up(s) of the Decade

[RCF]

Ok once again not meaning to rip off TPR but this is for the same reason as the Amusement Industry Achievement Thread. What was the biggest mess up of the decade? Was it the bankruptcy of Hard Rock Park? The failure that was Son of Beast? Geauga Lake being closed down?

Y'all know what to do: DISCUSS!!!!!


Due to a little confusion I didn't actually mean you had to choose one. Just make a list. It's easier.

 

[rollermonkey]

What a toss-up.

The crash and burn of SFI after the excesses of the 90's?

The lousy timing and mismanagement of the opening of Hard Rock Park? (I like the place, but mistakes were made.)

The end result of decades of maintenance neglect in Japan?

Dubailand?

 

[tomahawk]

4D coaster:
As much as I absolutely LOVE X/X2, it was a disaster of epic proportions. The designs were rushed, it sent Arrow into bankruptcy, and to top it off even further, the accident that shut it down for 8 months. Absolutely terrible. No wonder it has taken B&M a full decade to try and do the same design, without the rotations! Granted Intamin did it, what, 5 years ago? And the roughness problems were still there.

 

[marc]

For me it is going to be Merlin as the biggest mess up.

They do not seem to know how to run theme parks and give people the best experience. They just seems out to make as much money as they can with as little investment as possible.

The rides and coasters they have installed since they took over have been some of the worst Thorpe and Alton have had in years. Their marketing teams are just a joke etc.

Costs of the pass have gone up and up and are offering less and less.

Seeing that all the bigger parks in the uk are run by them I cannot see things getting better either.

Even on our visit to Orlando this year you can see the difference at Sea World and Busch, already job cuts and one train operations on rides, late opening of rides and staff not looking happy. The Dolphin encloser is the best example, you used to be able to stand with people feeding them but now if you want to go into that area everyone in the group has to pay even if just one person is going to feed them. Complete joke and out to make as much money as possible.

So yes for me Merlin are the biggest mess up for the Theme Park industry. Their are so many people not bothering with the pass for next year that I know of now, that says it all.

Hard Rock Park as well, but that is just obvious. I still think the park would have done ok had it been built in a better location, the concept was good and they did have a good ride line up.

 

[Hixee]

Topics like this are very hard to comment in. Firstly because so much has happened in the last decade, so just listing all the cock-ups is no easy feat. Then to decide on a 'winner'?

Anyway, I think that for me Hard Rock Park should get a mention. It was easily one of the worst park failures in the last decade. I thought the park has so much potential, but it just didn't work! Even after they sold the park (I think that's what they did, I don't remember exactly), it still didn't work and finally they just shut it down. Massive shame and a huge cock-up.

Merlin? Not so sure about this. I didn't really visit the parks very much before they were Merlin owned, so it'd be hard for me to compare. Merlin certainly have done some odd things though!

Any specific coasters? X/X2 possibly, but from what I've heard the new version is great so...

Furius Baco possibly? I've got a feeling the design of the trains was slightly rushed (massive speculation I know, but). The launch is absolutely incredible, and the layout had so much potential, I LOVED the ride the first time I rode it in the middle at the front, but after a few more rides you finally realise how rough it is. It's such a shame because it could've been so good. Having said that, I wouldn't really say it was the biggest cock-up of the decade.

The final one, and it's something that I think would make the Six Flags park ten times better, is the bins for bags and stuff on the station platforms. I honestly can't understand why they can't have them and frankly it annoyed me, so for me that was a big cock-up.

Like I said above, you could keep picking out specific examples all over the place, so I'll stop here.

 

[Uncle Arly]

I'll have to agree with the X/X2 comments.

Granted, it's supposedly alot better now with all the changes, but before that, I heard nothing but bad about it. It cost so much money, and even after it opened, it failed.

However, saying that, with Eejanaika and now X2, at least they resolved the matters, but I can't see many parks wanting to invest in one.

 

[Snoo]

Dubai and all of its errors. So much planning and so much boasting for it all to come crashing down. So many people were hyped about about those parks being built that they forgot that it was in Dubai.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

LOL Hard Rock Park for sure.

That's about all I have to say .

 

[jokerman]

Hard Rock Park for me. At least with Dubai, most stuff only ever got as far as planning before they realised what a mistake it would be to build it all. HRP was actually built, and a load of time and money was just thrown away. That's a true mistake. The problems in Dubai largely stemmed from a financial climate that couldn't have been envisaged, but at HRP they should have been able to work out that the way they were going to operate the park wouldn't work.

 

[Mike]

-Amanda Thompson.
-Alton Towers' marketing strategies.
-The closures (and in some cases opening as well) of a ton of parks (Pleasureland, American Adventures, Dreamland, Cyprus Gardens, Astroworld, Geauga Lake, Kentucky Kingdom, Astroland, Celebration City...etc...etc...).
-Cedar Fair not caring about any parks apart from Cedar Point.
-Six Flag's bankruptcy.

And a load more.

They just seems out to make as much money as they can with as little investment as possible.

But isn't that the whole point of setting up a business? :?

 

[marc]

^Yes Mike this is true, but they are also in the buisness to offer people value for money and in my view they do not. Since they bought the parks what have they done? they have taken more perks away than add yet charge more. It's my view on it anyway.

 

[davidm]

The death of 2 parks and the waste of lots of $$$;

SeaWorld Ohio & Geauga Lake

2000 Geauga Lake turns into Six Flags Ohio
2001 Six Flags Ohio + SeaWorld Ohio turns into Six Flags Worlds of Adventure
2004 Six Flags Worlds of Adventure turns back to Geauga Lake
...and turns the old SeaWorld bit into Wildwater Kingdom
2007 Geauga Lake closes

What a mess.

 

[Lofty]

The BEST **** up has to be from Kumbak. In terms of a few items and things they have done. Firstly, after starting their own first major coaster creation (De Vliegende Hollander) they had to bring in another company to finish it off. This is bad in itself, you'd think if they was making something as large of a first project they were, they'd have thought more into what could go wrong and improve on it? I understand companies have mistakes, it's so they can improve on them, but still, with the rumour being that they never added a waterproof motor in one section, that's just ridiculous!

Now, another thing they did was to add the horribly uncomfortable Kumbak trains to Stampida. Anybody that has rode both the PTC version and Kumbak will know where I am coming from with this; They made it SO uncomfortable, it is actually the most uncomfortable ride experience I have ever had, I can even say it verges on painful in parts (mainly the double up). When they first made the transfer from PTC to Kumbak, the lifthills had to crawl to less than 1mph to catch up. It made the capacity per hour drop dramatically. It is just atrocious. At least now we can say that they have overcome that, the thing is, it still rides like death.

 

[Snoo]

The death of 2 parks and the waste of lots of $$$;

SeaWorld Ohio & Geauga Lake

2000 Geauga Lake turns into Six Flags Ohio
2001 Six Flags Ohio + SeaWorld Ohio turns into Six Flags Worlds of Adventure
2004 Six Flags Worlds of Adventure turns back to Geauga Lake
...and turns the old SeaWorld bit into Wildwater Kingdom
2007 Geauga Lake closes

What a mess.

Well.. to be honest.. the death of the parks was essentially Six Flags fault. Cedar Fair took over a sinking ship and cut its losses.

 

[kimahri]

Hello?

Vertigo?

 

[tomahawk]

Can't forget Knott's Berry Farm turning into a giant cluster **** of track that it is now. The atmosphere was killed after Silver Bullet. Then the **** ups of Pony Express and Sierra Sidewinder...

 

[marc]

California Adventure I think needs a mention. The fact that just about everything is being changed in the park and millions is being spent to fix the problem that were there.

If it was not the fact Disney have this money to spend the park would have probably failed.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

I take your DCA Marc and raise you Paris' Walt Disney Studios...

Least DCA (no matter how crap it was) had a look at of a decent try (Grizzly Rapids and Soarin)... Also it has Muppets, which is awesome...

Granted though, any park that is going through a restoration phase that DCA is going through shows some really terrible planning...

 

[Nmg213]

I'm gonna mention all the **** that has been going on at busch gardens williamsburg.

They got rid of the following

Big Bad Wolf: an Epic Coaster that flew from side to side

Corkscrew hill: the most intense simulator I have ever been on

now there is a bunch of sesame street ****

 

[Snoo]

No?