Rob Coasters
Hyper Poster
Hi. A call for help here. Recently I've done a few dark rides where I've come off with zero feelings for them:
-River Caves
-Wallace and Gromit: Thrill-O-Matic
-Valhalla
-Pirates of the Caribbean
-Geister Rikscha
-Vliegende Hollander
-Fata Morgana
-Symbolica
-Villa Volta
-and literally every Europa Park dark ride except maybe Arthur or Voletarium.
And I've wondered why I ride so many of these supposedly world-class dark rides and come off thinking they weren't all that, and consistently being severely underwhelmed with all of them. However, after almost two years of struggling with enjoying dark rides, I think I've finally nailed my reason as to why: I don't understand the storyline, and I look at effects thinking "I wonder how they did that" or "oh hey it's Pepper's Ghost" or "oh that's impressive" without being able to immerse myself into the worlds in the slightest.
Not understanding the storyline results in:
-all of the sets become "ok figure it out yourself what any of this means".
-all of the sets feel disconnected from each other and I don't get why scene X follows scene Y.
-I don't understand what's happening, or why something's happening.
-I have no clue who the main characters are (unless it's made extremely obvious like with Pardoes in Symbolica, or if it's intentionally dubious and all the characters are just 'idk some pirates' for example).
-the endings always come as a surprise to me. a lot of dark rides end in me thinking "wait, it's over?" when the offload suddenly appears in view.
-if I look up the storyline before I ride it in order to understand what happens, do I run the risk of completely spoiling everything for myself?
Seeing all of the cool effects makes me think:
-oh, floating butterflies? I wonder how they made them float, are they attached to really difficult to see strings? and then I put my focus into trying to see the strings.
-oh, wizard dude holding a floating magical orb? I wonder if there's a hidden rod out of view that's making the orb appear as if it's floating.
-oh, spinning ghosts? I found out how they did that because I was so unbelievably fascinated by it, there's a hidden mirror under where the track is.
-if an effect intrigues or leaves me jaw-dropped as much as the spinning ghosts effect did, I end up finding out how they did it, and as a result ALL of the magic is lost when I see it on a future ride.
I wonder if anyone else has this issue: I cannot find a connection between almost any dark ride I do because I can't understand the storyline, what's happening or why, and when I see a cool effect all of my focus goes towards thinking "how did they do that" rather than being immersed into the world.
I try so hard to enjoy dark rides, I remember riding Piraten in Batavia and sitting on an edge seat and viewing the sets in a way that should theoretically bring me into the world - I looked in a way that blocked off the boat, any people, any ceilings, my full vision was the sets. And it failed to even suck me into the world a little bit.
Please check out my Europa Park trip reports to see me dive further into intricate details of what exactly I'm not fond of when it comes to their dark rides.
I can't keep coming off dark rides so disappointed by almost all of them. So many attractions that could be heartwarming masterpieces that could be real mood-brighteners, so many "good vibes" attractions that should have me coming off with the biggest smile on my face, yet almost none of them do. They all become "here's some physical sets that are connected in some way, good luck finding out how and no we won't tell you". You would think Madame Freudeunreich's Curiosites would have me become the most joyous person in the world after seeing all those dinosaurs in birthday suits. Ha...
It irritates me so much to have these views. There are dark rides that have almost made me cry (Droomvlucht). There are dark rides that NAIL it for me and have me coming off thinking it was one of the best rides I'd ever done (Phantom Manor). There are dark rides that just make me happy (Carnaval Festival). But there are countless others that don't do the same.
My questions are:
-can anyone relate to my problems? Is there anyone who shares this experience?
-what can I do to enjoy dark rides more? If I figure out how an effect works, is the magic just broken forever? Is there anything I can do to eliminate that "oh how did they do that?" thought in my mind and actually attempt to immerse myself into the attraction's worldbuilding? What do you do when you can't decipher a ride's story and all of the sets become "here's some models we built"?
-is there anything to 'save' dark rides for me? Have I gone too deep? Is me not rating so many world-class attractions just the beginning of a severe slippery slope into oblivion?
I wish I liked them more. I want to find out if there's anything I can do. I see people talking about Pirates in Batavia like it's the best thing they've literally ever ridden. I see people talking about Vliegende Hollander like it affected their entire life forever. I see people talking about Fata Morgana and how it made them cry just thinking about it. Can't relate. Can't relate. Can't relate. And it PAINS ME to think that way.
![Confused face :confused: 😕](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f615.png)
-River Caves
-Wallace and Gromit: Thrill-O-Matic
-Valhalla
-Pirates of the Caribbean
-Geister Rikscha
-Vliegende Hollander
-Fata Morgana
-Symbolica
-Villa Volta
-and literally every Europa Park dark ride except maybe Arthur or Voletarium.
And I've wondered why I ride so many of these supposedly world-class dark rides and come off thinking they weren't all that, and consistently being severely underwhelmed with all of them. However, after almost two years of struggling with enjoying dark rides, I think I've finally nailed my reason as to why: I don't understand the storyline, and I look at effects thinking "I wonder how they did that" or "oh hey it's Pepper's Ghost" or "oh that's impressive" without being able to immerse myself into the worlds in the slightest.
Not understanding the storyline results in:
-all of the sets become "ok figure it out yourself what any of this means".
-all of the sets feel disconnected from each other and I don't get why scene X follows scene Y.
-I don't understand what's happening, or why something's happening.
-I have no clue who the main characters are (unless it's made extremely obvious like with Pardoes in Symbolica, or if it's intentionally dubious and all the characters are just 'idk some pirates' for example).
-the endings always come as a surprise to me. a lot of dark rides end in me thinking "wait, it's over?" when the offload suddenly appears in view.
-if I look up the storyline before I ride it in order to understand what happens, do I run the risk of completely spoiling everything for myself?
Seeing all of the cool effects makes me think:
-oh, floating butterflies? I wonder how they made them float, are they attached to really difficult to see strings? and then I put my focus into trying to see the strings.
-oh, wizard dude holding a floating magical orb? I wonder if there's a hidden rod out of view that's making the orb appear as if it's floating.
-oh, spinning ghosts? I found out how they did that because I was so unbelievably fascinated by it, there's a hidden mirror under where the track is.
-if an effect intrigues or leaves me jaw-dropped as much as the spinning ghosts effect did, I end up finding out how they did it, and as a result ALL of the magic is lost when I see it on a future ride.
I wonder if anyone else has this issue: I cannot find a connection between almost any dark ride I do because I can't understand the storyline, what's happening or why, and when I see a cool effect all of my focus goes towards thinking "how did they do that" rather than being immersed into the world.
I try so hard to enjoy dark rides, I remember riding Piraten in Batavia and sitting on an edge seat and viewing the sets in a way that should theoretically bring me into the world - I looked in a way that blocked off the boat, any people, any ceilings, my full vision was the sets. And it failed to even suck me into the world a little bit.
Please check out my Europa Park trip reports to see me dive further into intricate details of what exactly I'm not fond of when it comes to their dark rides.
I can't keep coming off dark rides so disappointed by almost all of them. So many attractions that could be heartwarming masterpieces that could be real mood-brighteners, so many "good vibes" attractions that should have me coming off with the biggest smile on my face, yet almost none of them do. They all become "here's some physical sets that are connected in some way, good luck finding out how and no we won't tell you". You would think Madame Freudeunreich's Curiosites would have me become the most joyous person in the world after seeing all those dinosaurs in birthday suits. Ha...
It irritates me so much to have these views. There are dark rides that have almost made me cry (Droomvlucht). There are dark rides that NAIL it for me and have me coming off thinking it was one of the best rides I'd ever done (Phantom Manor). There are dark rides that just make me happy (Carnaval Festival). But there are countless others that don't do the same.
My questions are:
-can anyone relate to my problems? Is there anyone who shares this experience?
-what can I do to enjoy dark rides more? If I figure out how an effect works, is the magic just broken forever? Is there anything I can do to eliminate that "oh how did they do that?" thought in my mind and actually attempt to immerse myself into the attraction's worldbuilding? What do you do when you can't decipher a ride's story and all of the sets become "here's some models we built"?
-is there anything to 'save' dark rides for me? Have I gone too deep? Is me not rating so many world-class attractions just the beginning of a severe slippery slope into oblivion?
I wish I liked them more. I want to find out if there's anything I can do. I see people talking about Pirates in Batavia like it's the best thing they've literally ever ridden. I see people talking about Vliegende Hollander like it affected their entire life forever. I see people talking about Fata Morgana and how it made them cry just thinking about it. Can't relate. Can't relate. Can't relate. And it PAINS ME to think that way.
![Confused face :confused: 😕](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f615.png)