Worst theme parks

[ciallkennett]

Excuding minor parks, 3 instantly spring to mind.

Like Jer mentioned earlier, Six Flags America. Horrible layout, mediocre selection of rides, almost no shade and no atmosphere when I visited with CF.

On par with SFA, Darien Lake. Went on opening day with Taylor and the park was just dead. The ride selection was on par equal to SFA (the wooden coaster was the only ride worth re-riding a few times due to the epic ride staff on it). We left after a few hours as we just wanted to get away.

And UK-based, Drayton Manor. Dirty, ride selection which is ok but nothing to travel far for and the park was just in a state of neglect. Staff were poor, food was terrible and I vouched never to return unless they got a new cred. Ben 10 happened... and now I'm forced to revisit at some point soon... It's only one stop down on the train and a taxi ride away...

 

[rollermonkey]

I'm just laughing inside at all the hate for these First World parks with annual attendance over 500K.

You ain't seen a bad park until you've been to Asia, Africa or South America.

 

[Jer]

I've been to the jersey shore parks in Seaside before sandy, they were similar to being in Asia, and just as scary as being in South America...

 

[kimahri]

Uh, legit parks... SF America was the absolute worst. Can't really say for seaside fairs, they're pretty standard across the board apart from New Jerseys which were terrifying...

 

[furie]

There are lots of bad parks, lots of ugly ones, and lots of disappointing ones; but I think I've only been to one that was a national tentpole tourism destination that was all three at once.

What was that place by you Owain in Wales? It used to have the 4-man Bob from Alton and replacedit with the Shopping Trolley coaster? That was awful. It was just a farm with some slides in a silo and a couple of funfair rides operated by local sheep.

Rhyl Ocean Beach was abysmal too. Ride ops swearing at 7 year olds and drug addicts waiting to pounce :lol: And that wa sjust the CFers.

 

[ignace]

You ain't seen a bad park until you've been to Asia, Africa or South America.

I don't hate a park, but if you look at it: Walygator the last few years was total crap. It looked like a dump, rides closed down for years, their woodie was deadly and the most rides weren't approved by TUV.

If you wonder how the park looked the last few years, the dutch themeparknewssite "Looopings" made a report:

http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/1243/Gro ... -Parc.html

(the text is, like all of the articles on looopings, very negative but the most important things are the photo's...)

 

[caffeine_demon]

What was that place by you Owain in Wales? It used to have the 4-man Bob from Alton and replacedit with the Shopping Trolley coaster? That was awful. It was just a farm with some slides in a silo and a couple of funfair rides operated by local sheep.

this one?
http://rcdb.com/5239.htm

with the UKs only traveling black hole coaster!!
http://rcdb.com/3279.htm?p=13386

Looks delightful!

 

[rollermonkey]

I don't get the hate for the Jersey Shore parks.

I found nothing frightening or terrible about any of them. Then again, I grew up going to Salisbury Beach/Pirates Fun Park, and that place was like a giant ashtray.

 

[Jer]

I've been to Seaside at night, You wont truly appreciate the horror of the shore until then...

 

[furie]

What was that place by you Owain in Wales? It used to have the 4-man Bob from Alton and replacedit with the Shopping Trolley coaster? That was awful. It was just a farm with some slides in a silo and a couple of funfair rides operated by local sheep.

this one?
http://rcdb.com/5239.htm

with the UKs only traveling black hole coaster!!
http://rcdb.com/3279.htm?p=13386

Looks delightful!

That's the badger. Be jelly of my rare cred. It was literally like riding a shopping trolley through a farm yard in the dark - because that's exactly what it was :lol:

 

[tayloh_]

I'm not a big fan of Kennywood.
I mean, the park is pretty nice, and is a family tradition in the Pittsburgh area. But the rides just aren't that intense. Plus you have the ability to finish all the rides in the park twice and usually want to leave.

 

[gavin]

^I can't believe I forgot to mention Kennywood.

Kennywood's a dump, full of the absolute, bottom-of-the-barrel detritus of human kind.

 

[Luxornv]

I tend to agree with the OP that Animal Kingdom is incredibly overrated. It's only saving grace for me is Expedition Everest. Not exactly a coaster for a top 10, but it's my favorite at WDW. I was also was never very interested in animals, so the fact that DAK is really just a giant zoo doesn't really draw me in.

Indiana Beach is another one. As mentioned, just a dirty park with poor staff. I didn't find any of the coasters there all that great either. It's only a 2 hour drive away from me, so I didn't waste a lot of time on it.

Finally, this one isn't a large chain park, but Old Town in Kissimmee was awful. It had to be the worst maintained park I've ever been to. Everything just looked old and decrepit here. It was a stark contrast to the Fun Spot that was right next to it which was relatively clean and newish looking.

 

[owentaylor121]

New Southport Pleasureland back in 2010. Vile, vile park. It's getting much better now, but still...

 

[Nemesis of oblivion]

I do feel another one is the studios in Disney Land Paris. There really isn't enough to do at the park. They are building it up which is great but it feels it could have just as eaisly been a land of the Magical Kingdom park. The rides aren't as good as they are in other parks. However Crush's Coaster was pretty damn good butthe fact it always had a 2hr queue didn't make me rush for a re-ride. Toy Story Land really did nothing, even when I look at it as a kid area it's got nothing...special to it. Disney does have magic but it just doesn't seem to come through in this park.

It's more of the worst park I've visited. Yeah, there are much worse ones but I feel this deserved a mention as it was pretty much the first time I've come from a park with a dead-pan expression on my face. TPR's videos show some vile parks in Asia though.

 

[Ploddish]

What was that place by you Owain in Wales? It used to have the 4-man Bob from Alton and replacedit with the Shopping Trolley coaster? That was awful. It was just a farm with some slides in a silo and a couple of funfair rides operated by local sheep.

Groveland? Yeah, not a huge surprise they went under. Was a flash in the pan really, lasted about... must've been 5 years? Glad someone else tried competing with Oakwood, I suppose. Shame it didn't work out.

 

[Naemuti]

I visited Dorney Park on a night where it was completely deserted and everything was a walk-on and I'm glad. Would have been pissed if I had waited for anything other than Talon there. It's like your average Cedar Fair park except with an even worse ride selection. Steel Force is boring (are all Morgan hypers this bad?!), Hydra was a rough pos outside the jojo roll, and Thunderhawk almost broke my neck. The flat selection is bad and it's just ugh. I did everything once and left. Should have ridden Talon more when I was there because I don't want to go back. I'm going to say it's the worst CF park I've been to, more dire than Carowinds (sorry gavin!)

Also Six Flags as a chain is just BAD. They can't move people at all in an efficient manner (especially at Magic Mountain), everything is coated in advertisements, there is **** music blaring everywhere, all the buildings need a fresh coat of paint, the food is terrible, there's no fans anywhere (especially at Magic Mountain), and the Flash Pass is absurd (ESPECIALLY at Magic Mountain). I can't think of another place that sucks the fun out of being at an amusement park more than literally every Six Flags I've been to. It wasn't as bad when I started going in 2000 to Six Flags New England but things have become progressively more intolerable for a few years now.

 

[2pints]

There are lots of bad parks, lots of ugly ones, and lots of disappointing ones; but I think I've only been to one that was a national tentpole tourism destination that was all three at once.

Now, I will preface this with the fact that I visited on the last day of a trip where we visited Efteling, Phantasialand and Toverland on the previous days, and these three hit all my buttons so easily that pretty much anything that followed would likely seem much worse than it actually was. I will also say that I hadn't actually had my opinion of the place coloured by the opinions of others - I hadn't actually heard anything about the place at all, really, besides a few words about the park's biggest attraction, Goliath.

So yes, I'm talking about Walibi Holland. On its face, the place seemed perfectly quaint, if a little remote. The very first area we went to was the new music themed bit, and that seemed perfectly fine, even nice. I think it was about the time we headed towards Goliath, which irritatingly forces you to head towards the middle of the park, past a massive ferris wheel, some particularly grotty game stalls, and a drop tower that seemed to have been placed there in an afterthought. The rides themselves looked fine, but something else struck my attention. It was the faded paint on everything we passed. It was the cracked, uneven paving along the way. It was the lack of any atmosphere. It was the lack of beauty, even with all the foliage, and the bounty of ruddy lakes throughout the park. It felt devoid of any actual joy, and it's as if they filled the vacuum with dull consumerism. Aside from Goliath, there were no other entertaining rides, and on top of that, the majority of the rest of the offering was actively unpleasant.

Now, again, there is a likelihood that this was because it was the last day on a trip, and it was a pretty warm day that made me a little less receptive. Even accounting for that, it doesn't excuse the park, given how poor the show was even accounting for my total lack of expectations. They need to spend a little to add some actual emotion into the park: a little music, a touch of paint. I hope their retheme will do the job.

I totally agree with the above, visited that park in 2007 as an assistant scout leader with a group of Scouts they went off for the day and left us to enjoy the park - for what it was worth.
However we went again in 2011, after the re-theme/paint job etc etc, same park but the difference a lick of paint made was surprising. Everything seemed so much better, neater, tidier, efficient and so on.
The staff seemed to actually want to be there, and looked like they were enjoying their job and this really showed in how the staff interacted with the guests/customers.
There was also a real buzz in the park and a good atmosphere, something that was distinctly lacking in 2007.


As for worst parks - american Adventure, near Heaner/Ilkeston in the UK just after they took away the log flume, it just seemed cheap tacky run down and not cared for.

 

[Stealthyrose]

Apart from the world class wooden coaster, I would have to say that Oakwood (south wales) is pretty bad.

I used to go as a kid and LOVED it, but my last visit in 2010 was abismal. The place was dirty and very dated, the staff were useless and rude and most of the rides and food places werent open. Thwere was also a kids ride that consisted of plastic air plane things on wires which smelled off wee and looked like the unsafest thing since Barry Island.

 

[CPSFMMCW]

If I had to base it off of only the parks I've been to, then all my least favorites are disney parks. Disney Land, Magic Kingdom, California Adventure. I'm just not a disney fan. Its like a park dedicated to 5 year olds. I like parks with coasters. So my favorite that i've been to is SF Great Adventure. I love that place to death. But once I go to Cedar Point, that will be #1.