| 1 | Sometimes, creating a theme park attraction - or even a whole park - is no walk in the...well, park. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | [[folder:Individual Attractions]] |
| 6 | * ''Film/CaptainEO'', the first attraction at the Ride/DisneyThemeParks launched under the Michael Eisner/Jeffrey Katzenberg regime at the Walt Disney Company, [[http://www.mouseplanet.com/9085/The_Untold_Story_of_Captain_EO quickly got]] [[http://www.mouseplanet.com/9123/More_Untold_Tales_of_Captain_EO out of hand]]. To summarize those articles: |
| 7 | ** The company's famed Imagineers weren't happy that outside creators and companies were contributing so much to it, and it was greenlit on a premise rather than a full-fledged script. |
| 8 | ** The three weeks of principal photography under Francis Ford Coppola were followed up with six months of second unit work - that both Coppola and executive producer George Lucas moved on to other projects by that time didn't help - partially to address story problems in a film that was only 17 minutes long! And the final cost was easily as big as, or bigger than, many feature films of the era, becoming the most expensive film-per-minute upon its release. |
| 9 | ** Yahoo! put together a brief oral history of the whole business [[https://www.yahoo.com/movies/the-making-of-captain-eo-lucas-coppola-and-162110246.html here]] that also discusses such problems as Shelley Duvall dropping out of the role of the villainess due to claustrophobia and Music/MichaelJackson almost having his weak speaking voice redubbed by another actor. |
| 10 | * ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Magic Light Magic]]'' was the highly-hyped 1997 successor to Disneyland's long-running Main Street Electrical Parade - and, along with the early years of California Adventure (see below) became a symbol of everything wrong with the penny-pinching AudienceAlienatingEra of Paul Pressler's tenure as Disneyland president. |
| 11 | ** In Florida, the Magic Kingdom had successfully introduced a new nighttime parade a few years prior with ''Spectromagic'', a higher-tech version of the Main Street Electrical Parade with a fresh lineup of featured characters (what with the "Disney Renaissance" in full swing). ''Light Magic'' tried to reinvent the wheel: Two sets of identical stages were wheeled into position for a ''Riverdance''-inspired show that climaxed with the surrounding buildings lighting up alongside the floats. Unfortunately, their new technology was extremely buggy; notoriously an effect with a wire-mounted, flying sparkler representing Tinkerbell nearly started a fire and had to be scrapped. |
| 12 | ** Rather than delay the special, extra-admission-required world premiere performance of the show for the park's annual passholders, which predated the start of regular performances by less than two weeks, Pressler told the assembled crowd that they were seeing a dress rehearsal of the show come the big night. This last-minute bait-and-switch went over extremely poorly, and a lot of refunds ensued. |
| 13 | ** The bad buzz that disastrous premiere generated, particularly online, worsened when the show began regular performances -- earning the show the derogatory nickname "Light Tragic". The "streetacular" concept, which left audience members only seeing one float for most of the show, was a comedown from the traditional procession of a parade. Attempts at AudienceParticipation with unique pixie characters intended as the show's breakout stars failed when children ''ran away screaming'' from them, owing to [[UnintentionalUncannyValley Uncanny Valley]] masks that reminded some adults of burn victims. The show lasted less than four months (opening Memorial Day weekend, closing Labor Day weekend) and was pulled for a promised {{Retool}} that never materialized. In fact, Disneyland would not have a true nighttime parade again until [[MilestoneCelebration the park's 60th anniversary in 2015]], when the Paint the Night Parade debuted. |
| 14 | * Disney’s ''Mission: Space'' was a $100 million attraction at Epcot: a joint partnership between Disney and UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} to produce a ride that would push the limits of theme park tourism like no other. Its [[http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20160407/31867/sordid-history-misson-space-sickest-ride-epcot?page=3 sordid history]], however, highlights the worst ramifications that can come from poor ride design. |
| 15 | ** The ride's predecessor in that particular part of the park was Horizons, a dark ride about the history of technology. Sponsored by General Electric, it cost Disney $60 million (in 1982 dollars!) to create. Like most of the charter attractions in the Future World half of the park, it quickly became dated. Despite Disney’s best efforts to advertise it, visitors kept ignoring it and the ride lost its corporate sponsorship in TheNineties. So the Imagineers demolished the show building to make way for a new space-themed attraction inspired by the defunct Disneyland/Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom attraction ''Mission to Mars'', and loosely based on [[Film/MissionToMars a Disney film with the same name]], ''Mission: Space'' opened on August 15, 2003. |
| 16 | ** The ride’s simulation of zero-gravity through a centrifuge-based design, which had potential to make riders nauseous and claustrophobic, resulted in the placement of several warning signs in the queue. However, this wasn't enough; soon Disney began to offer onsite service to sick riders and airsickness bags in the ride vehicles. In a one-year period, there were 194 instances of paramedics having to treat guests, and ''Mission: Space'' became known as the “sickest” ride in Epcot - a park normally not known for thrill rides. It was also plagued with plenty of more dangerous accidents - the worst came when a boy stopped breathing during the ride and died upon its conclusion. |
| 17 | ** Casting another shadow over the attraction was a five-year lawsuit between Disney and Pennsylvanian company Environmental Tectonics, the latter claiming that Disney refused to pay the full amount due, prevented them from winning more work with other entertainment companies, and shared confidential details of the ride’s design with a rival vendor. Disney, however, claimed that Environmental Tectonics failed to live up to contractual commitments and made Disney pay $20 million more in producing the attraction. The lawsuit was eventually settled on January 7, 2009. |
| 18 | ** In May 2006, two weeks after the ride’s second death, the ride was given a massive overhaul. There are now two versions of the attraction offered: the Green Team version drastically lowers the intensity, [[note]]The centrifuge does not spin, thus eliminating the forces of lateral acceleration; the cabs themselves still pitch and pivot, providing some motion.[[/note]] while the Orange Team version offers the original experience unchanged. Instantly, ''Mission: Space'' became a hit amongst guests - and still is to this day - and no other fatalities have been reported. For 2017, the ride was revamped with Green Team becoming a flight around the Earth ([[ArtisticLicenseSpace against Earth's rotation in a violation of all known orbital mechanics]]) while Orange Team kept the original mission to Mars, albeit with updated visuals. |
| 19 | * The never-built ''Western River Expedition'' was a planned ride pavilion at the Magic Kingdom, designed by Animator-Imagineer Marc Davis, and would have been built in Frontierland. If built, it would've contained a western-themed boat ride, a runaway mine train roller coaster, themed hiking trails, a Pueblo Indian village, and a pack mule attraction. Lots of things conspired to doom the originally planned pavilion: |
| 20 | ** For one, the most common complaint from parkgoers in the first few months of the Magic Kingdom was, "Where are the pirates?" as the park had not been built with the popular ''Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' ride that Disneyland had received, especially since pirates are a major part of Florida's history. To pacify these people, Disney hastily built a second ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' ride in the Magic Kingdom. This 86ed plans for the ''Western River Expedition'' because much of the budget planned to build it was used in building ''Pirates of the Caribbean'', not to mention that it would be redundant to have two boat rides. |
| 21 | ** The economic downturn of the early 1970s and changes in Disney management also contributed to keeping the project from going through, along with concerns over the stereotypes of Indians and the loss of popularity of Westerns. |
| 22 | ** Towards the end of the 1970s, there was the possibility that the ''Western River Expedition'' would be built. Unfortunately, such chances were very slim, due to several factors, which besides changes in management and an economic downturn, included the construction of a massive expansion of Tomorrowland, which resulted in the addition of ''Space Mountain'', the ''Tomorrowland Transit Authority [=PeopleMover=]'', Walt Disney's ''Carousel of Progress'', and the ''Astro Orbiter''. The construction of these four attractions meant that money and resources couldn't be allocated to construction of attractions in other lands. |
| 23 | ** The nail in the coffin for the ''Western River Expedition'' happened in January 1979, when groundbreaking took place in Frontierland for ''Big Thunder Mountain Railroad'', a mine train roller coaster (which, to be fair, was part of the original plans), on the plot of land that had been reserved for the ''Western River Expedition'', mainly as a last-ditch effort to convince potential visitors not to put off going to Walt Disney World until Epcot opened. While ''Big Thunder Mountain Railroad'' was under construction, Marc Davis, desperate to save his project, tried to offer a compromise, where the roller coaster could be built as long as a scaled down ''Western River Expedition'' was built opposite the railroad tracks. This version would only contain the boat ride. Unfortunately, this was not the way things turned out. The proposed compromise never was enacted on, and construction of ''Big Thunder Mountain Railroad'' continued. |
| 24 | ** Despite the plans for the ''Western River Expedition'' being axed, many of its would-be elements would be incorporated into the Magic Kingdom's Frontierland as well as into other parks: |
| 25 | *** Florida's Frontierland would eventually receive a water-based attraction in 1992, when ''Splash Mountain'', a log flume themed to the Brer Rabbit portions of the film ''Film/SongOfTheSouth'', opened. |
| 26 | *** More notably, Disneyland Paris's Frontierland is themed as the mining town of ''Thunder Mesa'', named in tribute to the ''Western River Expedition''. |
| 27 | *** Marc Davis' plans for the ''Western River Expedition'' boat ride included a section where riders would pass through a mining town called Dry Gulch. Dry Gulch would be the basis for the literal ghost town of Phantom Canyon in ''[[Ride/TheHauntedMansion Phantom Manor]]'' [[note]](Disneyland Paris' version of the Haunted Mansion)[[/note]]. |
| 28 | * ''The Smiler'' roller coaster at Ride/AltonTowers was responsible for a multitude of various accidents right from the beginning. |
| 29 | ** As if to foreshadow all of the problems to come afterwards, during the coaster's ''preview event'', one of the trains stalled, leaving 16 people stranded on the ride, dangling at a steep angle. |
| 30 | ** Four days later, the ride was closed after it stalled during a test run, and a week later closed again with a computer malfunction. The following month, a metal bolt fell off and closed the coaster again, resulting in a rescue of 48 people on the ride. |
| 31 | ** Then, in 2013, cracks were found at the surface of the coaster and the wheels fell off and hit four people, leading to two more closings. |
| 32 | ** In April 2014, over a dozen people got stranded on the ride, and a year later, two carriages crashed into one another, resulting in injuries. |
| 33 | * Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia found itself in a dual rivalry. While it had a friendly one with its sister site Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Florida, it had a more fiercer rivalry with Kings Dominion in Doswell, a hour's drive from Busch Gardens. In 1990, however, Busch Gardens was hit with its first drop in sales due to the Gulf War raging in the Middle East. To bring back customers afterwards, Busch Gardens would lead to the creation of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKfSC3_LUtA Drachen Fire]], leading to a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSMjpbQEy3Y&ab_channel=ElToroRyan six-year run of headaches]] for the park. |
| 34 | ** Rumors claimed that Bolligar & Mabillard (B&M) had been the first choice by Busch Gardens' owners Anheuser & Busch, but since they had their line up set up for the 1992 and 1993 season and could only build one of two coasters for Busch Gardens, ultimately choosing Tampa Bay's "Kumba". This would force Busch Gardens to pick Arrow Dynamics to build Drachen Fire and had them use B&M's design to build it. However, this wasn't true - Arrow Dynamics had long since been Busch's first choice as they had built the iconic Loch Ness Monster and Big Bad Wolf under their previous names Arrow Designing and Arrow Huss, while B&M had only been active for two years and had yet to build their BreakthroughHit ''Batman: The Ride''. |
| 35 | ** With Arrow picked out, Busch requested that Arrow use brand new ideas for the coaster, stepping away from their more cookie cutter designs and standard structures. To this end, Drachen Fire became the first Arrow roller coaster to use Computer-Aided Drawing (CAD), which allowed the designers to build the roller coaster in "real time" and even test it out. However, there was a major problem with using this and this was in part due to its engineers. Head engineer Ron Toomer had been stubborn in adapting to new techniques, preferring to using designs created and calculated by hand rather than by computers. Though they updated their design technology, their design ''techniques'' were still outdated - they still used Tangent Radius Design (the use of straight lines and circles in designing roller coasters) and Low Rail Design (where the rotation forces were placed on the lowest part of the railing instead of the more comfortable heartlining, focusing the rotation on the rider's heart). |
| 36 | ** The ride would open on April 4, 1992 and, as a sign of things to come, the ride wouldn't work that day, with rumors saying that Dana Carvey, who had been hired to host its opening on the condition he got first ride on public viewing, didn't get the chance to ride it that day. |
| 37 | ** Within a week, things would go from bad to worse as three women would be injured from the rough rattling of the ride, leading to Busch Gardens to ban earrings on the ride. Two years later, a man tried to sue Busch Gardens for injuries caused by Drachen Fire, claiming they knew about the potential injuries caused by the ride and hid it to not damage gate numbers. To try to alleviate things, Busch Gardens and Arrow had the ride modified to remove certain curves to lessen the speed and forces on the track. As well, Arrow was forced to change its anti-rollback system to be more quieter after complains from a nearby neighborhood due to the early morning testing. |
| 38 | ** The writing on the wall came in 1997 with the opening of B&M's Alpengeist, which proved to be a much smoother ride than Drachen Fire and drew more riders away from the other ride. In 1998, a man suffered a brain injury riding Drachen Fire, which coincidentally dovetailed into Busch Gardens closing the ride in July of that year. There was an attempt to purchase the ride, but when the ride stalled on one of the hills, it scared the potential buyer away. In the end, the ride was ultimately dismantled and recycled. |
| 39 | * In 2000, Kings Island in Ohio built a wooden roller coaster called the ''Son of Beast''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JggE0FYV_Ys&ab_channel=HIKAWARIDES The fourth wooden roller coaster to be built at the park]], it was the world's first wooden hypercoaster (coaster with a height between 200 and 299 feet; ''Son of Beast'' stood 214 feet tall), the first to feature an inversion (a vertical loop), and the second longest wooden roller coaster in the world behind only its "father" coaster, ''The Beast'', on the other side of the park. ''Son of Beast'' was plagued with problems from the start, compared to ''The Beast''. [[WebVideo/{{Defunctland}} Kevin Purjurer]] outlines its troubled history [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8NMCyvaimY here]]: |
| 40 | ** Then-Kings Island owner Paramount Parks fired the Roller Coaster Corporation of America, the company hired to engineer and build the ride, before the construction was completed and had to make several design corrections in the ride’s initial year. Several lawsuits in the resulting court battle alleged that the ride was being built with subpar lumber, which would contribute to the accidents that led to the ride's closure. |
| 41 | ** On July 9, 2006 at 4:45 PM, a structural failure in the "Rose Bowl" section of the ride (one of the two massive helices) created a bump on the track that injured a full train of twenty-seven riders. Emergency workers were summoned to evacuate the riders from the other train, which stopped on the lift hill. Seventeen people were released from the hospital within five hours of the accident, and two were admitted to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. After an inspection the following day, the park stated that the accident was caused by a crack or split in the wood. The ride was closed for the remainder of the year. |
| 42 | ** The cause of the structural failure was determined to likely be the result of stress caused by the weight of the custom-designed trains built for the ride. Thus, during the 2006-2007 off-season, the ride was heavily renovated. The original trains were replaced with Gerstlauer-built trains from the demolished ''Hurricane: Category 5'' at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion in South Carolina, which were lighter than the original trains and would reduce the overall load on the wooden structure. The loop was also removed during this time to assist the lighter trains in completing the circuit. |
| 43 | *** Ironically, the loop was the least problematic section of the track because it was all-steel. The big problems were all with the wood structure of the rest of the track, since the original trains had to be very heavy in order to maintain speed through the loop (as the vertical loop wasn't until halfway through the ride, in between the two massive double helices). |
| 44 | ** The ride ran with no problems from mid-2007 to early June 2009. On June 16, 2009, a woman claimed to have suffered a head injury from riding ''Son of Beast'' during her visit to the park on May 31. She did not report the incident to Kings Island officials prior to June 16. She claimed that, after riding ''Son of Beast'', she had suffered from a burst blood vessel in her brain that required admission to an intensive care unit at a nearby hospital. While no irregularities were found with the ride, it was the nail in the coffin for the ''Son of Beast'', especially when it came to light in lawsuits stemming from the 2006 accident that the park had significantly neglected to properly maintain the coaster. The ride sat standing but not operating for three years, and then was demolished in Summer 2012. In 2014, a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted roller coaster called ''Banshee'' was opened on the former ''Son of Beast'' site. A grave marker for ''Son of Beast'' can be found in the queue line for ''Banshee''. Meanwhile, in 2019, for its 40th anniversary, ''The Beast'' saw its trains repainted into a red and yellow flame paint job that resembled both the paint job of the original trains of ''The Beast'', but also the paint job of the original ''Son of Beast'' trains. |
| 45 | * Kings Island also laid claim to being the location of the world's first suspended swinging coaster, ''The Bat'', built by Arrow Dynamics and opened in 1981. However, the ride was plagued [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W40VNnH1dSQ with mechanical difficulties that caused it to close only two years after opening]]. One of the problems was that the track was not banked, leading to premature wear on each train's shock absorbers as well as excessive steel stress on both the track and trains (some absorbers had to replaced after only ''a week'' of operation!). Inspections attributed the flaws to the ride's lateral movement design and brake configuration.[[note]]The brake fins, for instance, were not attached to the track, and instead were on the underside of the trains[[/note]] As a result, the ride was closed frequently while attempts were made to reconfigure support beams and patch cracks. The efforts proved costly and ineffective, and after assessing the cost of a complete overhaul, the park decided to permanently close the ride following the 1983 season. In 1987, Arrow Dynamics built a custom looping coaster called ''Vortex'' on the former site of ''The Bat'' and many remnants of the original ''Bat'' remained on site until Vortex's closure and demolition at the end of 2019.[[note]]Many of the Bat's concrete footers remained. The station and queue line for ''Vortex'' used to belong to ''The Bat''. There were also clearance holes for suspended coaster track cut in the top of Vortex's storage shed doors[[/note]] |
| 46 | ** One positive thing came out of the failures of ''The Bat'': Arrow Dynamics learned from their mistakes. They went back to the drawing board and improved the suspended roller coaster design in future installations, like actually banking the turns. This was evident when they tried again to build a suspended roller coaster at Kings Island in 1993, themed to and named after ''Film/TopGun'', which has operated ever since then. The ride was renamed ''Flight Deck'' in 2007 after Ride/CedarFairEntertainment acquired the Paramount parks and lost the licensing. In 2014, to coincide with the opening of ''Banshee'' on the adjacent lot formerly used by ''Son of Beast'', ''Flight Deck'' was repainted orange and renamed ''The Bat'' as a tribute to the original coaster. |
| 47 | ** Another unintentional consequence of the failures from the original ''Bat'' was how it affected ''The Racer'': ''The Racer'' began running its right side track backwards beginning in 1982, and it is thought that this move was to accommodate guests who were frustrated over the frequent closures of ''The Bat''. Though only intended for the remainder of the 1982 operating season, the change lasted twenty-six years due to its popularity, only going back to being forwards running in 2008 when Cedar Fair took over the park. Such a "one side forwards/one side backwards" configuration was also used on Racer's sister wooden racing roller coasters until the Cedar Fair takeover as well: Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion, and the defunct Thunder Road at Carowinds. |
| 48 | * The addition of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump into Disney's ''Hall of Presidents'' naturally came with all the complications such a divisive figure would be expected to create. To start with, just about the entire Imagineer team had expected UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton to win the election, and so plans were well under way to add her instead, which had to be scrapped and started again from the drawing board (though luckily, there hadn't yet been any construction on the animatronic). Plus, many on the team weren't happy with making an offer to Trump to record a special speech for the attraction as has been done since UsefulNotes/BillClinton took the office, and thus giving the impression that they supported his words at the same time he was hitting record low approval numbers amid numerous scandals. An anonymous source even suggested that Disney was making the recording of the speech more inconvenient than usual as a way for Trump to decline the offer without either side losing face. Ultimately, they did make an animatronic and get Trump to record a speech and the Hall reopened in December 2017. Even then, however, the problems didn't stop, as hecklers would boo the animatronic or chant "lock him up!", and get into shouting matches with Trump supporters. An exasperated Disney eventually stationed a pair of security guards in the theater on a permanent basis. |
| 49 | * New Tomorrowland at Disneyland was a case of this. In 1998, Disneyland gave Tomorrowland a makeover that was designed to invoke the retro-futuristic theme of Discoveryland at Disneyland Paris. The renovation began in 1995. The three-year makeover started only two years after the park’s last major project: the construction of Mickey’s Toontown. The land was not completely closed off the entire time, but major sections were blocked off to guests, and the entrance was finally walled up in 1997. As construction waged on, rumors about possible new attractions went rampant. Guests wondered if Tomorrowland would start to phase out transportation and space travel (its second main focus after home technologies in the 50s) in favor of a brand new theme. |
| 50 | ** The executives in charge of the Disney theme parks had learned important lessons from Disneyland Paris five years early. One of these was that a retro-future theme solves the problem of trying to stay ahead of the actual future (1967 Tomorrowland was starting to become dated). Another was that capital spending needed to be kept under control to avoid the financial issues that came with Disneyland Paris. So whereas Disneyland Paris had purpose-built retro-future architecture, the original Disneyland would try to accomplish the same thing primarily with lots of gold and bronze paint. Using simply paint ended with mixed results, as shown with Space Mountain. The white dome was repainted a greenish, oxidizing copper, which came off more like "grunge". It didn't suit Space Mountain, and Disneyland eventually had to undo the change in 2003. |
| 51 | ** Probably nothing shows how bad the renovation was done other than the Rocket Rods, which replaced the beloved [=PeopleMover=]. It was built using a prototype of the slot car technology Epcot was engineering for Test Track, but due to the limited budget and lack of sponsorship, the park didn't do anything to ensure the Rocket Rods were a high speed ride around Tomorrowland. So as a result, vehicles were constantly speeding up and slowing down for turns. The support structure originally designed for the [=PeopleMover=] was not suitable for the high speed of the Rocket Rods, causing damage to the structure itself. The constant changes of speed in the ride often caused malfunctions, resulting in frequent closures of the ride and a main reason why the attraction permanently closed. The ride closed in September 2000, and due to the structure's integration into Tomorrowland's buildings, it's still intact as a painful reminder, with entire legions of fans calling for the return of the [=PeopleMover=]. |
| 52 | * Cars Land at California Adventure had one very short-lived ride: Luigi's Flying Tires, in which guests scooted around on a personal tire, literally floating on air—and bouncing off others. It was much more fun than traditional bumper cars, which collide with a thud. It was supposed to be an attempt to revive the Flying Saucers, a Tomorrowland attraction at Disneyland that had lasted from 1961 to 1966. Unfortunately, Luigi’s Flying Tires utterly failed to bring back the Flying Saucers experience. The lumbering multi-rider tires lacked the intuitive ease-of-use and responsiveness of the sporty little saucers. When Luigi’s Flying Tires first opened, guests could throw beach balls at each other. That turned out to be a problem, and after just two months the beach balls disappeared. Meanwhile, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, the third attraction of Cars Land, became a surprise hit—much better than expected and very repeatable. The same could not be said for Luigi’s Flying Tires. After long waits, some guests were just trapped in clumps of tires, barely able to move. Even those who managed to break free and figure out the perfect way to lean were not rewarded with the promised exhilaration. Disney couldn't find a way to fix the Flying Tires, so they closed it in February 2015 and replaced it with a new trackless ride known as Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters, which reuses the Flying Tires' queue. |
| 53 | * The Flying Turns at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pennsylvania is the world's only wooden bobsled coaster in operation. Being the only one around (all the ones it was based on having been demolished), Knoebels had to build this one from the ground up. Despite being built in 2007, when test runs began, the ride didn't open to the public for ''six years'', in October 2013, due to the trains needing to be replaced and sections of track needing to be rebuilt. |
| 54 | * Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia had two launched roller coasters that had major problems to it, Hypersonic XLC and Volcano: The Blast Coaster. These, along with the aforementioned Son of Beast, highlight how the management of Paramount Parks (who owned Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland, and California's Great America) often went for prototypes and one-of-a-kinds that in the end were flawed: |
| 55 | ** First, Hypersonic XLC: |
| 56 | *** In the early Paramount years, Kings Dominion had two major roller coaster successes with Outer Limits: Flight of Fear and Volcano: The Blast Coaster, and wanted a launch coaster to surpass those two. Enter S&S Power, who designed their first roller coaster with the Thrust Air 2000, based off of their drop tower designs. Paramount Parks bought the prototype straight from S&S and christened it Hypersonic XLC (short for "Extreme Launch Coaster") |
| 57 | *** Despite glowing reviews upon launch in 2001, Hypersonic suffered serious flaws from being a prototype, the biggest of which were its tires. S&S had designed the tires to use rubber aircraft-like tires instead of the polyurethane tires from their drop towers as it would cause less noise; however, this meant that the tires would go flat due to the strain caused by all of those forces. As well, the I-beams were designed too short, causing cracks to appear from the forces. |
| 58 | *** Despite making numerous modifications and upgrades, Paramount Parks decided it was not worth the hassle of constant downtimes and upgrades and, in 2007, the ride was ultimately shut down and disassembled. |
| 59 | *** Originally, Hypersonic XLC was to be built at California's Great America, and to that end, that park closed the Great America Scenic Railroad, an attraction dating back to the park's opening day in 1976. Ultimately, the coaster was never built, and remnants of the old railroad right-of-way serve as a painful reminder of what once was.[[note]]Its equivalent at California's Great America's sister park, Six Flags Great America, still operates, though[[/note]] |
| 60 | ** Volcano: The Blast Coaster, however, is quite the odd one: |
| 61 | *** In 1979, a few years after Kings Dominion opened, a massive ride complex called the Lost World Mountain opened up in Safari Village, which comprised of four rides - Mount Kilimanjaro, a flat ride; Journey to the Land of Dooz (later rethemed Smurf Mountain), a children's train ride; Journey to Atlantis (later rethemed Haunted River), a flume ride; and The Time Shaft, a rotor ride infamous for having numerous maintenance issues caused by vomit-induced corrosion. While initially popular, by 1993, Smurf Mountain would be shut down with the other rides two years later. |
| 62 | *** In 1996, bolstered by the popularity of Flight of Fear, Paramount Parks would recruit Swiss manufacturer Intamin to build their newest coaster, Volcano: The Blast Coaster. Like Hypersonic XLC, Volcano was also a prototype coaster referred to as a "suspended catapult coaster". Construction would begin in earnest in 1997, completely gutting Lost World Mountain. It was supposed to open in Spring 1998, but the coaster's inability to actually leave the mountain forced them to push back the opening until August, where they had done a stopgap by removing half the seats on the trains. The missing seats would be put back next year. |
| 63 | *** Despite its popularity, Volcano was a ''massive'' maintenance headache, especially since it was the ''only'' suspended catapult coaster ever built (everyone else bought Intamin's cheaper Impulse shuttle coaster). This meant getting parts was incredibly expensive and trying to get it fixed proved to be an adventure of its own. In 2006, the ride suffered its first and only major incident when a broken bolt broke and showered debris onto guests, injuring two. |
| 64 | *** By 2018, the ride's 20th anniversary, the writing was on the wall when the ride was shut down indefinitely, its crew sent to other areas and ominous holes appearing on the mountain and, in 2019, the decision was made that Volcano was to be removed. While no one knows exactly why the coaster shut down, many have suggested that the expenses made to keep the coaster running was too much and the possibility of the parts no longer being made meant that it was impossible for Kings Dominion to run it any longer. |
| 65 | * ''Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster'' at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom had one of the shortest runs of operation in theme park history, thanks to its troubled production. |
| 66 | ** Skyline Attractions, a company popular for its family-friendly mini-attractions, wanted to do something bigger yet cheaper. To this end, they would resurrect an idea from before the company formed: two Immelmans back to back, making it look like a figure 8. One big train would be placed with two seated sections placed on two ends, making the illusion of two trains back to back. The design, known as "Skywarp", would get the eye of Six Flags, who would purchase the design in 2017. |
| 67 | ** Initially set to open on June 17, 2018, weeks of delays would ultimately push the opening date to August 8... to lukewarm reviews. The ride would be lambasted for its uncomfortable restraints, vibrations and loud noises caused by the train. Even more, the ride only went in one direction, leading riders who rode the ride backwards to miss out on the aspect of watching others race by, something that was touted as a main draw. Even worse was that the ride was constantly shut down. |
| 68 | ** 2019 wasn't that good, either. Skyline had sought to improve from problems on ''Harley Quinn'' via their Horizon model, debuting at Sea World San Diego as ''Tidal Twister''. However, ''Harley Quinn'', ''still'' facing downtimes, and Tidal Twister were forced to shut down two weeks after ''Tidal Twister''[='s=] debut due to a recall on the steel used by Skyline made by Rocky Mountain Construction. |
| 69 | ** Six Flags would shut down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and wouldn't reopen until 2021. While ''Tidal Twister'' would ultimately reopen up, poor ''Harley Quinn'' would be announced to be shut down... in a ''Facebook comment''. It would be ultimately completely scrapped and all that's left of the ride's presence was a mound of dirt. |
| 70 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjproJZUcOI&ab_channel=ElToroRyan As shown in this video]], ''Steel Vengeance'' did not have a wonderful opening life. |
| 71 | ** ''Steel Vengeance'' started out as ''Mean Streak'', Cedar Park's answer to "the world's tallest and fastest wooden coaster". The ride would stay open for 25 years, from 1991 to 2016, when the wear and tear of the ride finally lead to Cedar Park to shut down the ride. To revitalize the ride, Cedar Park hired Rocky Mountain Construction, an up-and-coming roller coaster construction company who had successfully morphed old wooden coasters into exciting new hybrid wooden-steel coasters. In May 2018, ''Steel Vengeance'' would open to rave reviews, but not without trouble. |
| 72 | ** One of the main problems was the experimental train. Designed to be able to handle the new twists and turns smoothly, it proved to be heavier than expected. This resulted in the train being unable to cross the first brake run should it be forced to stop and, on the first day of running, caused a minor accident when it was able to slip away from the final brake run and hit the train in the loading bay. The first brake run was disabled and a new braking system was set up as stopgap measures. In 2019, a more permeant fix was installed for both, including tire drives to give the trains a boost across the problem areas. |
| 73 | ** That same year, incidents involving lost cellphones, including one incident at Kings Dominion's ''Twisted Timbers'' (formerly ''The Hurler''), lead to Cedar Park to ban cellphones on the ride, which upset riders since that meant that would have to buy a locker to put them stuff in. In 2019, pouches were installed in the front of the seats to put them in. This would only last until 2020 due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was solved in 2021 with a brand new, double-sided ''free'' lockers that riders could put their belongings in and, once the ride ended, they could retrieve them leaving it. |
| 74 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d9GvM7ufGw&t=497s As shown in this video]] the original ''X'' rollercoaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain had a troubled history before the attraction was redesigned as ''X2'' in 2008. |
| 75 | ** Inspired by the ''Zipper'' amusement ride, Arrow Dynamics began development of the 4th Dimension Coaster concept in 1995. Many within Arrow Dynamics were skeptical of the attraction and believed it would never be built. |
| 76 | ** The concept of the attraction sees riders situated to the side of the track on either side of the train. As the train would navigate the ride, the seats would spin forwards and backwards 360 degrees in a controlled motion during the ride. This was achieved by using a four rail track system and a rack and pin gear system installed on each seat located on the trains. Using the two rails for the spinning seat mechanism and the rack and pin gear system, the seat would able to individually spin in a controlled direction during the ride based upon the direction of the rails and train, thus ensuring that each rider would get the same experience each time. |
| 77 | ** In 2000, Six Flags heard about the concept and expressed interest in building the first 4th Dimension rollercoaster at the Magic Mountain park in California. After a successful meeting, Six Flags greenlighted the project. |
| 78 | ** The construction, development and testing of ''X'' seemed to go smoothly and attracted significant attention from roller coaster enthusiasts and casual theme park goers. However it was later revealed that the cost of building ''X'' was a staggering '''forty five million dollars''' making it one of the most expensive rollercoasters ever built. Six Flags also wanted the roller coaster to be bigger than originally intended which contributed to the inflated budget of the attraction. |
| 79 | ** With Arrow Dynamics rapidly losing money and resources on ''X'', Six Flags attempted to get the coaster ready for its grand opening in late 2001. However ''X'' suffered a delayed opening from design flaws and would eventually open in early 2002. But not before Arrow Dynamics went into bankruptcy due to the inflated budget for building ''X.'' Six Flags later filled a lawsuit against Arrow Dynamics citing a civil lawsuit due to the troubled nature of ''X'' due to the delays and testing issues. |
| 80 | ** Despite receiving critical acclaim from casual park goers, and rollercoaster enthusiasts, Six Flags struggled to operate and maintain ''X''. The heavy weight of the massive trains were causing significant downtime to the attraction and caused a lot of wear and tear on the track and the supports. The restraint system and loading system was also very complex and caused longer wait times for customers waiting to ride. The rollercoaster also used twice as much electrical power compared to the other operating rollercoasters at Magic Mountain. |
| 81 | ** Frustrated, Six Flags closed down ''X'' and sent a lot of money to get the attraction running at the park over six years. The fallout from the failure of ''X'' also caused Six Flags to get cold feet at installing prototype rides at their parks and contributed to the company's economic troubles in the 2000s. |
| 82 | ** Eventually in 2008, Six Flags hired S&S Worldwide, [[note]] S&S Worldwide was able to acquire the 4th Dimension Coaster blueprints from Arrow Dynamics and has go on to refine and build several more 4th Dimension Roller Coasters. [[/note]] to help fix ''X'' into a hefty rebrand known as ''X2'' which cost ten million dollars. These new improvements over the original ''X'' included lighter and smoother trains that were easy to operate and increased dispatch times, a more striking colour scheme of red and black, and finally the addition of onboard audio, mist and fire effects that occur throughout the roller coaster experience. These changes paid off and ''X2'' is now considered to be one of the greatest rollercoasters ever built by rollercoaster enthusiasts and casual park goers. |
| 83 | * ''Top Thrill Dragster.'' Located at Cedar Point, this record breaking strata coaster was the first roller coaster to break the 400ft height barrier and the 100mph speed barrier by becoming the tallest and fastest roller coaster on Earth for two years before these records were later taken by ''Kingda Ka'' located at Six Flags Great Adventure. The ride operated for twenty years and had a very troubled operating history. |
| 84 | ** After ''Millennium Force'' opened in 2000, Cedar Fair and Intamin would begin collaborating on a record breaking launch coaster that would become the tallest and fastest in the world with a price tag of twenty five million dollars. |
| 85 | ** During the closed season in 2001 and 2002, the structure of ''Top Thrill Dragster'' rose over the parks skyline as the hype for the attraction grew. |
| 86 | ** Despite construction delays due to bad weather and crane limitation, ''Top Thrill Dragster'' opened smoothly in May 2003 and the ride became very popular at Cedar Point. |
| 87 | ** Over the years though, ''Top Thrill Dragster'' became a maintenance nightmare for Cedar Point with many parts of the ride breaking down and having to be replaced by Intamin over the years including the Hydraulic Launch System which frequently broke down. Many Cedar Fair officials were frustrated with the ride's breakdowns with CEO Dick Kinzel commenting, ''"This is the most frustrating ride I've ever been through..."'' |
| 88 | ** ''Top Thrill Dragster'' also had a number of accidents over the years where riders were injured by the ride malfunctioning. The first incident in July 2004 saw the launch cable snap with debris injuring riders on the train. |
| 89 | ** In August 2021, the rides fate was sealed when a piece of metal from the train collided with the track during the launch sequence before the debris struck a woman causing her to suffer from a traumatic brain injury. |
| 90 | ** In response to the accident, Health and Safety officials ordered ''Top Thrill Dragster'' closed whilst an investigation was launched which revealed signs of fatigue and wear on the track and train cars. |
| 91 | ** In the aftermath of the investigation, Cedar Point was cleared of any wrong doing and ''Top Thrill Dragster'' remained closed for over a year with Cedar Fair quickly regarding ''Top Thrill Dragster'' as an [[OldShame Old Shame]] and one of the biggest roller coaster failures in recent history. |
| 92 | ** Eventually in 2023, Cedar Point announced they would be redesigning the troubled rollercoaster by adding in a new magnetic launch system, new trains along with a new swing launch system where the train would be launched forwards and backwards three times up the old giant top hat and a gigantic 400ft vertical spike to complete the layout. Zamperla was hired to redesign the ride, which will reopen in 2024 and be known as ''Top Thrill 2.'' |
| 93 | [[/folder]] |
| 94 | |
| 95 | [[folder:Disney Parks]] |
| 96 | * The original Ride/{{Disneyland}} endured the opening day from hell, as [[http://www.cracked.com/article_23774_6-monumental-achievements-that-have-terrifying-twist.html these]] [[http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2525-the-horrifying-nightmare-that-was-disneylands-opening-day.html articles]] on ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' and [[http://www.history.com/news/disneylands-disastrous-opening-day-60-years-ago this article]] on Creator/TheHistoryChannel's website make clear. It was so bad that Creator/WaltDisney and the park's employees referred to it as "Black Sunday". |
| 97 | ** Walt had rushed the park bearing his name to completion, opening it on July 17, 1955 just one year and one day after the ground was broken. Furthermore, he had its opening broadcast nationwide on Creator/{{ABC}} in a special, star-studded 90-minute live presentation hosted by TV personality [[Series/KidsSayTheDarndestThings Art Linkletter]] and actor (and future President) UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan that featured the likes of Creator/SammyDavisJr, Music/FrankSinatra, and Fess Parker (star of the Disney-produced ABC series ''Series/DavyCrockett''). Pretty much everybody around Walt, including [[UsefulNotes/TheWaltDisneyFamilyAndTheNineOldMen his brother Roy]], thought the park was [[ItWillNeverCatchOn a terrible idea that would sink the company he had built]], calling it "Walt's Folly". |
| 98 | ** And on opening day, it seemed that all of the worst fears of Walt's critics were coming true. The park's managers had focused on getting the TV special ready [[SkewedPriorities at the expense of getting the actual park ready]], and while the broadcast went off without a hitch, it didn't capture the fact that, to put it bluntly, the park wasn't finished. A number of rides were not yet ready, Tomorrowland wasn't open at all, the triple-digit mid-July heat caused the fresh asphalt of Main Street, USA (which had been poured ''the night before'') to melt and absorb many a woman's high heels, a plumbers' strike meant that the water fountains didn't yet work, the Canal Boats of the World ride (now the Storybook Land Canal Boats) frequently broke down and had to be pulled by hand, the shores of the Canal Boats ride were overgrown with so many weeds that signs with exotic species names were put up in the area to [[AllPartOfTheShow make it look like an arboretum]], and the Mark Twain riverboat was packed well over capacity and took on water (capacity was very quickly capped at 300). |
| 99 | ** Worse, while 15,000 tickets had been sold for opening day, the exact number of attendees was over 28,000 due to the proliferation of counterfeit tickets, not counting the people who just climbed over the fence and went for free. Furthermore, in an effort to prevent overcrowding, each ticket had a designated entrance time, but since guests were not leaving after a few hours as expected, the crowding grew worse as the day wore on. Traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway was backed up for seven miles, concessions stands quickly ran out of food and drink, and lines for the restrooms were so long that people began relieving themselves in corners, alleyways, and the parking lot. It was so bad that Walt himself invited many attendees back for a second "opening day" for free (after the park had been finished) as an apology. |
| 100 | ** The next few weeks weren't much better. The stagecoach ride in Frontierland had to be closed down due to it being top-heavy and prone to rolling over, the Autopia ride had to have guardrails installed after most of the cars were wrecked by aggressive drivers, and a circus parade in Main Street, USA went haywire when a tiger and a panther broke loose and started a "furious death struggle". Many predicted that the park would not survive its disastrous opening. By the end of the year, however, the park's teething issues were worked out and the place had defied Walt's critics, reaching its millionth visitor within seven weeks, and in time it would become one of America's most iconic tourist attractions. |
| 101 | * The first years of the Disneyland Resort's second theme park, Disney's California Adventure, were also rife with troubles. |
| 102 | ** At the time, the Ride/DisneyThemeParks (aside from those in Japan) were prone to penny-pinching by higher-ups. Upon its opening in early 2001, this sister park to Disneyland primarily consisted of "off-the-shelf" rides (roller coasters, a Ferris wheel, etc.) with little of Disney's legendary theming, a few imports from the Florida parks, and corporate-sponsored exhibits and walkthroughs on winemaking, construction machinery, etc. Worse, many of the off-the-shelf rides had height restrictions, giving little kids virtually nothing to enjoy. Longtime Disney park fans, well-aware of much more elaborate concepts for a second park (such as a West Coast version of Walt Disney World's famed Epcot) that were scrapped in favor of this project, were key to the bad online buzz California Adventure received in advance of its opening. |
| 103 | ** Disney went into damage control mode upon poor public response, which only got worse after the 9/11 attacks crippled tourism, with a series of quick "fixes". Attempts at a summer concert series and a Christmas-season fireworks show flopped due to a weak lineup for the former (bigger acts that might have done a theme park gig were already booked at state fairs and the like) and a lack of infrastructure for both. An additional area themed to ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' featured nothing but ''more'' off-the-shelf rides, albeit ones that little kids could ride. Disneyland's much-loved Main Street Electrical Parade was revived here to the disgust of fans who'd patronized it in its much-merchandised "final year" next door (which, remember, was succeeded by the aforementioned ''Light Magic'' debacle). Even the addition of the popular Florida ride ''Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror'' was greeted with yawns. (It's telling that to date, only one of the charter California Adventure attractions, Soarin' Over California, has been exported to other Disney resorts. Elements of the Disney Animation exhibit were also duplicated in Florida.) |
| 104 | ** Highly-hyped adult-oriented restaurants like the ABC Soap Opera Bistro and celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck's Avalon Cove were closed simply because of a lack of visitors in the park by dinnertime. Even the musical revue ''Steps in Time'' (despite a massive {{Retool}}) and the dark ride ''Ride/SuperstarLimo'' didn't last the first full year of operation, whittling down the park's weak attraction lineup further. |
| 105 | ** Another problem: the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon was in an AudienceAlienatingEra at the TurnOfTheMillennium, so it couldn't provide a new park with hot, fresh properties to base rides, shows, and character meet-and-greets upon. 2002's ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', their one meaningful success of this period, yielded up only a poorly-received street show. (Most of the Disney parks never properly, fully capitalized upon it, in fact.) They had to resort to newer Pixar and aging Disney films that hadn't yet warranted standalone rides and shows at Disneyland Park itself to flesh out the attraction lineup (an ''Aladdin'' stage musical, the aforementioned ''A Bug's Life'' area, etc.). |
| 106 | ** Eventually, changes in management at Disney's theme park division paved the way for a massive, five-year overhaul of the park that brought it up to the standards expected of the world's most famous theme park operator, with attractions like ''Ride/WorldOfColor'' and [[Franchise/{{Cars}} Cars Land]] providing the family appeal that had been lacking at the start. |
| 107 | * Shanghai Disneyland, Disney's sixth theme park resort and their first in mainland China (Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005) had its share of troubles too on the way to its June 2016 opening - itself delayed by a few months from the spring. Smog issues could be distracting for visitors from other countries. [[CulturalTranslation Disney had to make a lot of changes to certain sections of the park to appeal to local guests]], [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon since their characters]] [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts and properties]] (except ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse'') [[PopCultureIsolation aren't as well-known in mainland China as elsewhere]]. Budget overruns in Shanghai were made up for by budget ''cuts'' at the American resorts in 2015-16, leading to cuts in operating hours, characters getting cut from meet and greets [[note]] Such as Marie from ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' in Spring 2016, and Lady Tremaine months earlier. [[/note]], and general upkeep and delays for new attractions and refurbishments. And even though Shanghai Disneyland ended up hugely popular from day one - it welcomed its one millionth guest in mid-August - the Walt Disney Company initially [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents couldn't trumpet their success internationally]]. '''The night before''' the grand opening took place, a toddler at one of their Florida complex's hotels was dragged into a lake by an alligator and drowned, making ''that'' the Disney-related story that made headlines in North America for days instead. |
| 108 | ** Once Main/TheNewTwenties arrived, the park continued to struggle even more not long after [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic The COVID-19 Pandemic]] started in early 2020. Shanghai Disney Resort became the first Disney Park to shutdown for 100 days and wouldn't reopen until June 30, 2021. Shanghai later closed a second time on November 2021 for two days with 30,000 visitors stuck inside. Then closed for a third time on March 2022 in response to China's rising numbers of COVID cases before reopening once again on June 30, 2022. On Halloween Day of 2022, the resort abruptly closed for a fourth time due to more COVID cases. |
| 109 | * Ride/DisneylandParis, initially known as Euro Disneyland, became a byword for "mismanaged disaster" and the butt of jokes about [[AudienceAlienatingEra the sorry state of Disney's theme parks]] in TheNineties from the moment it opened. While Disney did eventually turn it around and make it the most popular theme park in Europe, it had a hell of a time getting there, and its troubled early years had [[DisasterDominoes cascading effects]] on the rest of the company's theme park division. |
| 110 | ** Disney had wanted to open a European Disneyland since 1966, considering locations not just in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} but also in UsefulNotes/{{London}}, Frankfurt, and Milan, but didn't start moving on those plans until the successful opening of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983. By 1985, Disney had narrowed its list of possible locations down to four, one near Paris, one near Toulon along the French Riviera, and two in Spain along the Mediterranean coast. Despite their pleasing climates comparable to what Disney's parks in California and Florida enjoyed, the sites in Spain and Toulon ran into environmental issues, and so the town of Marne-la-Vallée near Paris was chosen for its close proximity to many of Europe's largest and wealthiest cities. The first agreement between Disney CEO Michael Eisner and the French government was signed in December 1985. |
| 111 | ** And the controversy started from the word "go". The idea of Disney, seen by many Europeans as a symbol of [[UglyAmericanStereotype everything crass and commercial]] about [[{{Eagleland}} American pop culture]], opening a theme park right outside [[GayParee one of Europe's great cultural capitals]] infuriated French pundits and intellectuals, who saw Euro Disneyland as a case of [[EaglelandOsmosis American cultural imperialism run amok]]. One writer for ''Le Figaro'' wrote that he wished that someone would burn Euro Disney to the ground, and Parisian theater director Ariane Mnouchkine called the park a "cultural Chernobyl", an appellation that became popular among its critics. As construction progressed, the site of Euro Disneyland became a magnet for protesters, with Eisner being greeted on one visit by having eggs and globs of ketchup thrown at him by people chanting "Mickey Go Home". |
| 112 | ** Disney, for its part, did little to endear itself to the French locals, despite some public statements that they would respect cultural differences and the efforts of lead Imagineer and executive producer Tony Baxter to build a truly French version of a Disney theme park. Executive and developmental meetings were held only in English, Eisner said explicitly that Euro Disney would be a direct transplant of the Magic Kingdom, and wine was banned from the park. Disney's appearance code strictly regulating personal dress (including prohibiting jewelry, facial hair, and certain hair styles), which they vigorously defended as key to the park's image, outraged French labor unions, who saw it as a violation of both individual liberty and French labor laws. Disney also ignored the recent failure of a number of expensive theme parks in Europe, which provided an ill omen for Euro Disney's fortunes. Finally, the name "Euro Disneyland" led to ValuesDissonance, as while Americans associate the word "Euro" with European glamour and high culture, Europeans themselves associate it with business, commerce, and UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion. |
| 113 | ** Then the park actually opened on April 12, 1992. Attendance figures on opening day were a disaster, just a fraction of the initial projections, with the car park only half-full by midday. The French government and Disney themselves, expecting a crush of visitors to the park, warned people not to come on opening day, a move that [[GoneHorriblyRight worked too well]]. The local railway union also went on strike that day, likely in protest of the traffic overload that they feared awaited them. Two power lines in the area were bombed in an attempt to sabotage opening day, though they didn't affect power to the park itself. The fact that Europe was in the middle of a recession at the time only added to its woes. While some elements of the park were praised, especially its version of Tomorrowland (renamed Discoveryland and given a {{steampunk}} flair inspired by Creator/JulesVerne rather than try to reflect a modern vision of the future that would succumb to {{zeerust}}), common criticisms including a lack of attractions and an overabundance of hotels. |
| 114 | ** Problems continued from there. Just one month after opening day, it was reported that a quarter of the park's staff, about 3,000 people, had [[TakeThisJobAndShoveIt quit due to poor working conditions]], forcing the park's head Robert Fitzpatrick to respond that [[NotHelpingYourCase "only" one thousand employees had quit]]. Having lost a ton of money on the debacle (the park was $3 billion in debt by 1994), Disney immediately started putting plans for new theme parks on ice, including plans for European versions of Disney-MGM Studios and Epcot, a second gate at Disneyland in California (what would've been [=WestCOT=]), Disney's America in Virginia, and the Beastly Kingdom at Animal Kingdom in Disney World. |
| 115 | ** In 1994, the park changed its name to Disneyland Paris and began to turn itself around. It turned its first profit the following year as attendance started to climb, buoyed by the opening of its widely acclaimed version of ''Ride/SpaceMountain''. |
| 116 | * Speaking of Disney's America, it too wound up a notorious boondoggle for Disney, for many of the same reasons as Euro Disneyland. However, while Disney was able to turn things around at Euro Disneyland, this park would never leave the drawing board. |
| 117 | ** Creator/WaltDisney had plans for a theme park based on American history going back to the unbuilt Riverfront Square proposal in UsefulNotes/StLouis in TheSixties, ideas from which later made it to Liberty Square at Epcot, including the Hall of Presidents. Michael Eisner was inspired to build such a park after he and several other Disney executives visited the Colonial Williamsburg living history museum in Virginia in 1989. With Euro Disneyland going overbudget and behind schedule, it was also felt that Disney's next park should be smaller and more narrowly focused. In the early '90s, Disney settled on a site in Haymarket, Virginia, a town located about 35 miles west of UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC and five miles from the Manassas National Battlefield Park, and started buying up land to build their new theme park, and announced Disney's America on November 11, 1993. |
| 118 | ** While Disney had the support of the Virginia state government, the project infuriated many locals, for many of the same reasons as Euro Disneyland. First off were the practical reasons. It was feared that Disney's America would bring a wave of suburban sprawl and tacky tourist traps to a protected historical site, especially since the area around Haymarket already had low unemployment, making many people question the value of the economic boost that Disney's America would bring to the area. While a majority of residents of Virginia in general supported the project, including many in Haymarket itself, outrage ran deep in the surrounding towns in Prince William County, which feared that they would be collateral damage for the growth of Disney and Haymarket. The American Farmland Trust voiced its opposition for this reason. |
| 119 | ** Second, and more importantly, many people did not trust Disney, the {{Trope Namer|s}} for {{Disneyfication}}, to handle subjects like slavery or [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the Civil War]] with anything resembling historical accuracy or good taste, and they feared that Disney's America would be a literal [[TheThemeParkVersion Theme Park Version]] of American history. Statements by Disney's senior vice president Bob Weis that Disney's America would contain exhibits letting guest know what it felt like to be a Civil War soldier or a slave went over badly. A group of historians who objected to Disney's America founded a group called Protect Historic America to oppose it. Eisner attempted to defuse criticism by taking a group of historians to Epcot to see The American Adventure, which backfired and only convinced them that Disney would screw it up, while a statement he made to ''The New York Times'' defending the project, claiming that history education in America was too boring, seemingly confirmed all the suspicions that the park's critics had that it would be more focused on entertainment than education. Eventually, even members of Congress were taking sides on whether or not Disney's America was a good idea, and both Disney's executives and various historians were HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee. As opposition to the park grew, so too did opposition to the subsidies that the state of Virginia was preparing to give to Disney. |
| 120 | ** The killing blows for Disney's America were threefold. First, the unfolding debacle of Euro Disneyland made Disney's theme park division a lot more reluctant to spend a ton of money building a brand new park, especially one as controversial as this. Second, a project study determined that the park would have to close for four months out of the year due to winter weather, not the two or three that they initially thought, reducing expected revenue by around 10%. Finally, the death of the Walt Disney Company's president Frank Wells in a helicopter crash on April 3, 1994 took out one of the project's biggest backers, leaving Eisner with fewer allies at the company. Disney eventually decided that, even if they managed to overcome political opposition and actually build Disney's America, it would be a PyrrhicVictory given the ferocity of its critics, and on September 28, 1994, they announced that the project was canceled. The following year, they sold the land they'd acquired to build it, most of it being used to build housing and a Boy Scout camp. Eisner still saw the park as his pet project and continued looking for a place to build it, but attempts to build it in Pennsylvania and at the site of Knott's Berry Farm in California fell through. Disney learned hard lessons from the failure of Disney's America; when they built Animal Kingdom at Disney World, they made sure to recruit zoologists and environmental experts to [[ShownTheirWork ensure accuracy]]. |
| 121 | [[/folder]] |
| 122 | |
| 123 | [[folder:Universal Parks & Resorts]] |
| 124 | * The early years of [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Studios Florida]] were rough sailing. |
| 125 | ** With Universal's theme park in Hollywood a success, a second park in Orlando was announced to much fanfare... but the king of the Orlando-area family attractions, the [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Walt Disney World Resort]], was well aware of the potential competition and beat them to the punch by launching its own working studio/theme park equivalent, Disney-MGM Studios, in the summer of 1989. Furthermore, Disney-MGM's flagship ride upon opening was a studio backlot tour, forcing Universal to cancel their own plans to bring the Hollywood tram tour to Orlando lest they open themselves up to charges of UsefulNotes/{{plagiarism}}. (Ironically, many elements of Disney-MGM's backlot tour were eerily similar to plans that Universal had come up with for their own planned tram tour.) Delays piled up during construction, forcing Universal to miss its planned late 1989 opening date. |
| 126 | ** When the park finally opened on June 7, 1990, Universal's most highly-hyped rides - Ride/{{Kongfrontation}}, Ride/{{JAWS}}, Ride/EarthquakeTheBigOne, and Ride/ETAdventure - were ''all'' prone to frequent breakdowns and technical malfunctions. On opening day, over a thousand disgruntled guests received either refunds or free tickets for another visit, and the following day the park simply gave ''everybody'' who purchased a ticket a voucher for another one at a later date. |
| 127 | ** JAWS especially was [[http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20150414/30158/jaws-how-universal-s-shark-ride-turned-real-life-disaster a nightmare to keep running.]] Reportedly, Creator/StevenSpielberg and his family were among those trapped on the ride when it broke down on opening day. It had to be closed and rebuilt from scratch just two-and-a-half months after the park opened, with Universal and Ride & Show Engineering, the company that they hired to build the ride, suing each other over the debacle: Universal accused R&SE of shoddy design and workmanship, while R&SE accused Universal of rushing them to open the ride before they could fix its design flaws. JAWS wouldn't reopen until ''1993'', leaving a whole chunk of the park dormant. (In that, funnily enough, JAWS [[TroubledProduction/{{Film Serial Offenders}} had a lot in common]] with [[Film/{{Jaws}} the film it was based on]].) |
| 128 | ** It wouldn't be until Ride/BackToTheFutureTheRide opened in 1991 that the park had something that could truly compete with Disney's nearby offerings, which had (and continue to have, most of the time) a reputation for rarely breaking down, beginning a long, slow ascent for the Universal complex to its current position as Disney's one true [[TheRival rival]]. |
| 129 | ** A problem shared by both Universal Orlando and the competing Disney-MGM Studios at Disney World, as outlined in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItPkMIumy_o this video,]] was that they couldn't have ambient music in the park. A key part of the hook for both parks was that they were also functioning film and TV studios -- and [[DidntThinkThisThrough that put restrictions]] on what they could do both in the theme parks and on the outdoor sets. The noise of both parks' attractions meant that their respective studios were used mainly for live shows and events, like Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} Studios and pro wrestling events at Universal, where crowd noise was AllPartOfTheShow. |
| 130 | * ''Ride/SkullIslandReignOfKong'' reportedly faced a lot of technical difficulties with getting its trackless dark ride system to work reliably. Their experience making this ride is believed to be a factor in their reluctance to make more trackless rides; ''Illumination's Villain-Con Minion Blast'' and ''Ride/TheSecretLifeOfPetsOffTheLeash'' were both planned to be trackless at some point during their development before being scrapped for something else. ''Minion Blast'' ended up using a moving walkway, and ''Pets'' was switched to a tradition omnimover dark ride setup. |
| 131 | [[/folder]] |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[folder:Other Theme Parks]] |
| 134 | * If you could write a Shakespearean tragedy about an amusement park, one of the best candidates for such would be Geauga Lake. Alive for more than ''a century'', and a beloved family destination in Ohio, it unceremoniously closed in 2007: |
| 135 | ** It started in 1995, back when it was still a small, local amusement park about forty miles southeast of UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}. Its owner, Funtime, Inc., was bought out by Premier Parks, owners of a number of amusement parks across the US. Three years later, Premier Parks bought out Ride/SixFlags and rebranded itself in that company's image, and sought to redevelop many of its smaller parks into full-fledged Six Flags theme parks - and none would be more fully-fledged than Geauga Lake, which was renamed '''Six Flags Ohio''' and was envisioned, in its final form, as the largest theme park in the world. [[http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140824/28153/lost-geauga-lake-how-worlds-largest-six-flags-disappeared It went badly.]] |
| 136 | ** It started promisingly. Six Flags went on a spending spree at Six Flags Ohio, pouring $40 million into the park in 2000 alone, money that netted the park twenty new rides, including four rollercoasters. The former Geauga Lake had become a serious competitor in the theme park world virtually overnight, now a regional competitor to Hersheypark, Kennywood, Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Kentucky Kingdom. |
| 137 | ** Nobody felt the effects of Six Flags Ohio's growth more than the park across the lake, Ride/SeaWorld Ohio, which had traditionally been the bigger of the two parks in the area and existed in a symbiotic relationship with its neighbor. However, for various reasons (local ordinances, a non-compete clause with the former Geauga Lake park, and simple spite for Six Flags), [=SeaWorld=] Ohio couldn't or wouldn't build the thrill rides that were now starting to pop up at its sister parks in San Diego, Orlando, and San Antonio. Attendance began to suffer as a result, leading to [=SeaWorld=] Ohio getting sold to Six Flags in 2001. Under new management, the two parks were merged into '''Six Flags Worlds of Adventure''', a 700-acre megapark with thrill rides, a waterpark, and all of [=SeaWorld=]'s old marine zoo. To this day, it was the largest single theme park in history (if one counts the [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Walt Disney World Resort]]'s multiple parks as separate rather than part of one complex), and on paper, it was perhaps the ultimate theme park, a serious rival to Cedar Point (Northern UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}'s other major theme park, and typically held to be one of the best in the world)... |
| 138 | ** ...And it was doomed. Six Flags' overinvestment in this and other parks put them deep in the red (the company filed for bankruptcy in 2009), turning Worlds of Adventure into a financial liability despite its popularity. Furthermore, the two combined local parks simply did not have the infrastructure for the Cedar Point-sized crowds that showed up daily. By all accounts, Worlds of Adventure was hopelessly cramped, crowded, and filthy despite its massive size, and given that one of Six Flags' main selling points at the time was cheap ticket prices (a season pass cost only ''$50''), many of the guests were rowdy teenagers and {{Lower Class Lout}}s who created a bad image in the minds of locals who remembered when Geauga Lake was a small family park. Finally, while the park had previously been able to avoid direct competition with Cedar Point by virtue of its smaller size and different market, its mammoth expansion meant that it no longer had that luxury -- and given the above problems, the comparisons were not flattering. Attendance [[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PmxPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wwQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6062,1632041&dq=geauga+lake+wildwater+kingdom&hl=en crashed by 74%]] between 2001 and 2004. In spite of this, Geauga Lake was considered by some to have been even better than Cedar Point at its height. |
| 139 | ** The town of Aurora, Ohio, on top of that, was not built for such a massive park. So the city was suddenly rushed to convert two-lane roads into four-lane highways. The park had good attendance numbers, but a lack of hotels in the area deterred out of state guests, and the sheer amount of traffic and thrill seekers deterred families who thought of the place as a family park. |
| 140 | ** As such, in 2004 a financially-desperate Six Flags sold the park to Ride/CedarFairEntertainment (owners of Cedar Point) at a firesale price. Cedar Fair sought to return the park to being a smaller family destination, restoring the Geauga Lake name and removing all of the Six Flags theming and licensed properties. Most controversially, they also closed down the marine zoo that the park inherited from [=SeaWorld=] (Cedar Fair does not do animals, period), and for two years didn't bother to put up anything in its place, leaving a slew of abandoned buildings. Only in 2006 did they do something with the former [=SeaWorld=] site... namely, turn it into a second water park, Wildwater Kingdom. It's important to note that Geauga Lake already had a water park in the form of Hurricane Hannah's (formerly Hurricane Harbor in the Six Flags days). Many fans of Geauga Lake [[ConspiracyTheorist suspected]] that Cedar Fair deliberately sabotaged the park so as to remove competition for their flagship at Cedar Point. |
| 141 | ** In 2006, Cedar Fair also bought out Paramount Parks. This resulted in them having a monopoly on all three of Ohio's major amusement parks: Cedar Point, Geauga Lake, and Kings Island near Cincinnati. This spending spree (the Paramount purchase cost $1.24 billion) left them deep in debt, [[HistoryRepeats much like Six Flags before them]], and to cut costs, they targeted the faltering Geauga Lake for ride shutdowns and relocations. Over the course of 2006 and 2007, Geauga Lake was ransacked for everything from roller coasters to gift shops to food vendors. Most of the rides found new homes at other Cedar Fair properties, and some were scrapped. Eventually, it was announced at the end of the 2007 season that Geauga Lake would be shutting down permanently after over a century of continuous seasonal operation. Wildwater Kingdom, the only part of the park that was still successful, remained open for another nine years before closing for good at the end of the 2016 season. |
| 142 | ** The final insult, as [[http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2576-we-found-it-saddest-oktoberfest-ever.html described]] by Evan V. Symon of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'', was the {{Oktoberfest}} celebration that Geauga Lake hosted as operations were winding down at the end of the 2007 season. Everybody knew they were about to lose their jobs, and as such, [[CreatorsApathy nobody cared]] about the work they were doing. The only beer served was Budweiser and Bud Lite. The "traditional German music" played at the festival was all ripped from [=LimeWire=] and picked simply because [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign it sounded vaguely German]], and as such, it included not only Music/{{Rammstein}} and a song from Creator/MontyPython, but also "Horst-Wessel-Lied" and other Nazi-era songs, which they only found out after somebody who ''did'' speak German pointed out what they were playing over the park's loudspeakers. |
| 143 | ** [[https://youtu.be/6K_eDJdh-oo?t=756 As of February 2021, the SeaWorld aquarium was still standing abandoned]], not just years after the park was closed, but ''years after the [=SeaWorld=] potion of the park was closed'' and turned into the Wildwater Kingdom waterpark. During their ownership of the park, ''and'' their operation of the waterpark, Cedar Fair seriously didn't bother doing anything with that building. |
| 144 | * Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina [[http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20150607/30335/do-not-post-hard-rock-park-americas-lost-rock-n-roll-theme-park became]] [[http://themeparkuniversity.com/extinct-attractions/hard-rock-park-10-why-the-park-closed/ notorious]] for lasting a mere ''150 days'' before it closed its doors. |
| 145 | ** [=SeaWorld=] San Diego executive Jon Binkowski decided to split and [[StartMyOwn make his own company]], Renaissance Entertainment. His popular Myrtle Beach ice-skating theater near the defunct Waccamaw Factory Shoppes mall got the attention of entrepreneur George Bishop, who wanted to turn both into an entertainment complex named Fantasy Harbour. This innovative yet ambitious project was planned to have four separate themed areas to represent each of the four seasons. Bishop paid to improve the mall's infrastructure, [[DiedDuringProduction but sadly passed away before construction had begun]]. |
| 146 | ** The torch was then passed to Binkowski and financer Steven Goodwin. Believing that a brand name would attract more people, Binkowski got the ''Hard Rock'' license and dropped the Fantasy Harbor project.[[note]]Renaissance Entertainment and Hard Rock International had previously worked together on Universal’s [=CityWalk=] and the Hard Rock Café restaurant chain.[[/note]] Some of the attractions included a [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion “British Invasion”]]-themed area, a dark ride based off of Music/TheMoodyBlues' 1967 song "Nights in White Satin", and a Music/LedZeppelin roller coaster. |
| 147 | ** To meet investor expectations, the park had to draw three million visitors in its first year. It only generated about two to three thousand guests a day. The reasons why were numerous. First, the park cut back on its operation hours little by little, to the point where it was closing early enough to rule out the nightly fireworks shows. The Hard Rock license reduced its appeal to children, but the addition of kiddie rides in response to this dismayed adults. The high admission prices, coupled with the onset of the Great Recession in 2008, also hurt tourism and rendered few families able to afford vacations and go to the park. Finally, Hard Rock Park's location just a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean put it into direct competition with Myrtle Beach's oceanside resorts (for comparison, Walt Disney chose the inland city of Orlando, Florida to build his second park precisely to avoid such competition). |
| 148 | ** It wasn't long before the owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy... which was later changed to ''Chapter 7 liquidation''. Also, a new outlet mall had opened just up US Highway 501, killing off the Waccamaw Outlets almost immediately. |
| 149 | ** In February 2009, a private group named FPI MB Entertainment bought the park, and by April had completely re-themed it as Freestyle Music Park. The people behind Hard Rock Park sued for copyright infringement, claiming that FPI had done little to re-theme the park to differentiate it from its former state and feared that they did so to piggyback off Hard Rock’s intellectual property without paying royalties. Freestyle Music Park still opened on May 23, 2009, but despite improved operation hours and admission prices, it closed for good in Fall 2009. Several advertisers and advisors had been suing the park for millions of dollars, ending any hopes of resurrecting what was once Hard Rock Park. |
| 150 | * Old Chicago, a shopping mall-amusement park hybrid in Bolingbrook, Illinois, fell victim to this. You can find more information [[http://lisawebworld1.tripod.com/oldchicago.html here]] and [[http://www.negative-g.com/old-chicago-amusement-park/old-chicago-amusement-park-index.htm here]]. |
| 151 | ** Inspired by Knott's Berry Farm, designer Robert Brindle invested two years of development on a year-round open indoor facility with amusement rides. Construction was started before the proper permits and approvals had been obtained, leading to a lawsuit and numerous changes demanded by the Village of Bolingbrook. |
| 152 | ** The mall opened publicly on June 17, 1975, but with exposed electric wiring because construction remained incomplete. Because of this, the mall owners were told that they would not be able to open on their scheduled June 26 opening date. What resulted was a last-minute rush to complete the mall and pass inspection on time. |
| 153 | ** A month later, the signs of the hasty construction begain to show: there was a trash compactor fire and the sprinkler system malfunctioned, shutting down the mall for six hours. |
| 154 | ** During a circus, acrobat Jimmy Troy fell to his death. |
| 155 | ** Old Chicago competed with Six Flags Great America, which opened in 1976. The mall also failed to attract locals because its smaller shops and boutiques were not as desired as traditional department stores. |
| 156 | ** The Illinois Central Railroad took control of Old Chicago the following year. They replaced Brindle with investor Clyde Farman as general manager, spent over $8 million to add new attractions, and rescheduled the mall's hours of operation. Despite this, visitor numbers stayed down. |
| 157 | ** 1979 saw more fires hit the mall, including a fire at the Old Chicago Tobacco Company (which had ''no'' sprinklers in the area) and a prematurely-ignited Fourth of July fireworks display that injured two people. |
| 158 | ** Old Chicago shut down in March 1980. Efforts to salvage the original building were quashed thanks to structural damage and repeat vandalism; it was demolished in Spring 1986. The street where the mall once stood is still named after it. Years later, the concept of an amusement park within a mall would be incorporated more successfully at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota and West Edmonton in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. |
| 159 | * Heritage USA, created as TheMoralSubstitute to the Disney parks by televangelist Jim Bakker's PTL network, eventually fell into this. |
| 160 | ** Things started off well upon the park's opening in 1978, hitting its peak in 1986 with 6 million visitors, behind only Ride/WaltDisneyWorld and Ride/{{Disneyland}}. However, the next year the entire PTL organization was rocked by the sexual and financial scandals surrounding Bakker, specifically charges of overselling the lifetime partnerships being offered by the ministry in order to raise money. The organization, including the park (already stripped of its tax exempt status by the IRS), wound up for a time in the hands of Jerry Falwell, Sr., a Lynchburg, Virginia-based televangelist best known as [[MoralGuardians the founder and head of the Moral Majority]]. While the Baptist Falwell and the Pentecostal Bakker stood opposed on various theological matters, Bakker still personally entrusted Falwell with his ministry in order to prevent a hostile takeover by the rival Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart[[note]]Himself the subject of a career-ending adultery/prostitution scandal the following year, [[{{Hypocrite}} quite ironically]] given that he was leading the Assemblies of God's investigation of Bakker[[/note]] that would expose even more of his scandals. As part of a pledge drive to bail out and take over the debt-ridden PTL, Falwell famously [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHVBYR9RPyM&t=325s went down]] the park's 163-foot Typhoon water slide while wearing a suit and tie. After Falwell left in late 1987, the park remained open until Hurricane Hugo severely damaged much of the property in the late summer of 1989.[[note]]In a curious twist, Hugo, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in nearly thirty years, came shortly after Jim Bakker's fraud trial related to the lifetime partnerships was underway.[[/note]] |
| 161 | ** Following the park's closure, the former Heritage USA property would bounce around between different owners. The first came in 1991, when the Malaysian investment firm MUI Group partnered with San Diego-based televangelist Morris Cerullo to purchase the property for $52 million, dubbing it [[NewAndImproved New Heritage USA]]. This partnership was short-lived due to Cerullo wanting to issue discount cards, leading to a lawsuit and MUI eventually buying out Cerullo's interest in the park (though Cerullo would retain the cable channel, known as the Inspirational Network before the name was shortened to INSP). |
| 162 | ** Now going alone, MUI, after moving subsidiary Laura Ashley plc to the former PTL World Outreach Center building (renamed the Regent Building), worked to add a golf course and residential development. They also briefly attempted to re-open the former Heritage Grand Hotel in partnership with the Radisson hotel chain as Radisson Grand Resort, a short-lived venture that ended with the hotel closing and (after a brief period of falling into disrepair) being restored and re-opened, with some rooms being converted into condominiums and the atrium being used by Rick Joyner's [=MorningStar=] Ministries. Some of the other properties, such as the old Upper Room chapel, an auditorium for special functions known as "The Barn", and the former PTL studios, remain in use. |
| 163 | ** However, some of the other properties were demolished or continued to languish in disrepair. The Jerusalem Amphitheather (near the campgrounds) was demolished in 2012 when plans to turn the outdoor amphitheater into a concert venue fell through. The King's Castle (under construction at the time of the Bakker scandals), planned as the world's largest Wendy's restaurant and sitting partially on parts of the properties owned by [=MorningStar=] and developer Earl Coulston, was later completed as an arcade and skate park by MUI. [=MorningStar=] briefly announced plans to attempt a renovation for the church to open a youth center before determining that the venue was too badly damaged and vandalized to be salvageable, with Coulston paying for the demolition since it was partly on his property. |
| 164 | * The sad story of Six Flags New Orleans is such a type that it could be considered for two separate entries: |
| 165 | ** The park started out as Jazzland, which opened in 2000, operated by Alfa Smartparks. However, due to its poor location (it was built near Lake Pontchartrain, 15 miles from New Orleans itself, and in a middle of a poverty-stricken and crime-riddled area) and poor advertising due to a lack of funds, Jazzland's lease would be put up for sale. |
| 166 | ** Six Flags would buy the lease in 2002 and, in 2003, Jazzland was rebranded as Six Flags New Orleans. Despite the heavy marketing push, major rebranding and extra rides, Six Flags New Orleans was the least profitable of Six Flags' collection of parks, still for those reasons mentioned earlier. However, Six Flags were in it for the long haul and tried to persevere. |
| 167 | ** Then came August 28, 2005. Hurricane Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico, obtained Category 5 status and made a beeline for New Orleans. It was initially decided to close until the storm passed and they could clean up. It would never open again -- while Hurricane Katrina veered away from New Orleans, the powerful winds and heavy rains would cause the woefully-underprepared levees to be breached and flood the city. The sewer system by Lake Potchartrain would fail itself and the waters would mix within the theme park. Making matters worse, the theme park was built within one of the lowest points in the area. The end result: a dark, brackish mixture of rain and seawater about 8 feet deep. |
| 168 | ** The park was a total loss -- the water wouldn't lower for over a month and when it did, the park was in shambles. Only a handful of rides survived by luck and were removed, refurbished and reinstalled elsewhere while the park itself would be abandoned by Six Flags itself. |
| 169 | ** Since 2008, numerous companies have competed to buy the abandoned land, trying to turn it into another amusement park or a mall, but nothing has yet to materialize in over a decade. |
| 170 | * Another Six Flags park, Six Flags Atlantis, would suffer an equally ravaging event. |
| 171 | ** The park initially began its life as "Atlantis the Water Kingdom", a water park situated on the intersection of Stirling Road and Interstate 95 in Hollywood, Florida. However, the park sat partially completed when its initial backer lost funding. Bally Corporation, owners of Six Flags, bought the site and finish construction, christening it "Six Flags Atlantis". Brochures touted the site as the world's largest water theme park. |
| 172 | ** However, the park had problems with its location. The first problem was that the park was situated near beaches - it was a few miles from Dania Beach and minutes away from the popular beaches in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The second was the weather - the park's schedule was at the whims of the various thunderstorms and its off-seasons dealing with sudden cold spells driving away customers or heat waves during closed days. |
| 173 | ** In 1988, Six Flags sold the park and the new owners trimmed away many of the amenities along with the insurance burden of the Six Flags name, allowing it to operate in the black as its original name. However, like Six Flags New Orleans after it, Hurricane Andrew put an end to it, damaging it too much to be saved and no location could be found to get it away from the weather. |
| 174 | * Ride/EvermorePark was an amusement park in Pleasant Grove, UsefulNotes/{{Utah}} that offered an experience inspired by HighFantasy novels and [[RolePlayingGame Role-Playing Games]], its worlds built around a mix of [[VictorianLondon 19th-century England]] and MedievalEuropeanFantasy. Announced in 2014 with a planned opening date the following year, it instead opened in 2018 after a four-year boondoggle and only faced more difficulties afterwards in its short existence, as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9OhTB5eBqQ this video]] by WebVideo/JennyNicholson explores. |
| 175 | ** The initial announcement at the 2014 Salt Lake City Comic-Con promised a destination that would rival the Ride/DisneyThemeParks. Its creator, Ken Bretschneider, was a Utah-based EccentricMillionaire and Halloween enthusiast who had made his fortune in tech and, having already dipped his toes into other business ventures from film to music to bottled water, decided that he wanted to get into the theme park business. While the local press greeted it enthusiastically, seeing Bretschneider as a hometown hero who invested his wealth back into his community, theme park enthusiasts elsewhere were skeptical from day one, as the park's team had not yet broken ground on the planned site of the park despite having already hired a substantial staff, to which the team responded by saying that the park would open in phases. |
| 176 | ** Sure enough, in May 2015 it was announced that Evermore Park's opening had been delayed indefinitely, allegedly due to financial difficulties, particularly the park's ambitions outgrowing both its budget and the parcel of land that they had purchased for it. It has been speculated, however, that the real reason why it stalled was because of opposition from the town of Pleasant Grove, whose residents feared that their small, sleepy suburb would be overwhelmed by a wave of tacky tourist development and accompanying traffic comparable to Anaheim or UsefulNotes/{{Orlando}}. In response to both the delays and local opposition, the plans for Evermore were scaled back considerably, including getting rid of nearly all the rides to focus more on immersive theatrical quest experiences where guests would be able to affect the progression of an ongoing fantasy storyline, while Bretschneider started a chain of {{Virtual Reality|Index}} attractions called the VOID, short for "Vision of Infinite Dimensions". Some of the new plans for Evermore indicated that a VOID attraction would be incorporated into the park. |
| 177 | ** Evermore finally had its "soft opening" to the public on September 22, 2018... and it was clear that the park was not ready for opening day. Parts of it were still visibly under construction and gated off, and a lot of decorative trickery were used to cover up those unfinished areas of the park that could be covered up. That said, early feedback was encouraging, and indicated that the park could succeed with some more polish. |
| 178 | ** While some of the park would indeed be polished in 2019, the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic in 2020 brought that progress to a screeching halt. Bretschneider's VOID attractions, until then his most profitable business ventures, were killed overnight by the pandemic, which not only precluded any chance of Evermore getting one but also cut off a vital source of money that he could have invested into the park. By January 2021, Evermore was being sued by unpaid contractors seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed payments, the park had launched a [=GoFundMe=] to seek additional cash to remain solvent, and numerous employees were being laid off. Many people were predicting the park's imminent demise, especially after it was announced that it would be closed for several months. |
| 179 | ** All the while, the park struggled to find the right balance for how freeform the park experience should be. When the park first opened, the quests suffered from a bad case of GuideDangIt and were difficult for guests to figure out, leaving many of them frustrated. The park responded by making the quests simpler and easier, but in doing so, they swung too far in the other direction and simply made them boring by taking agency away from the guests. The park also tried to create special quests called "epics" for groups of up to 25 guests, but these left individual guests with little agency within the group. One of the park's main selling points, its ongoing story with no NegativeContinuity, also created problems with ContinuityLockout for first-time visitors, especially as character actors would inevitably develop a rapport with frequent guests who got into the lore and involve them more heavily in the story. This in turn ran the risk of guests and character actors developing parasocial relationships with each other, which opened up a whole different set of issues concerning boundaries. |
| 180 | ** And on that note, many former character actors, when contacted by Nicholson for her video, had horror stories about their experience at the park even before the layoffs. NoOSHACompliance was in full effect as character actors often had to use dangerous pyrotechnics as part of their performances, one of whom caught fire (though was fortunately uninjured). The pay was low, and employees were routinely asked to do unpaid maintenance work around the park that was beyond what they were hired for. When one character actor got injured on the job when the stilts he was walking on broke, the email that management sent out to employees was [[SkewedPriorities less concerned]] with assuaging the concerns of other employees than it was with [[AllPartOfTheShow how to work his injury and disappearance from work into the ongoing storyline]]. Character actors also had no recourse when dealing with harassment from guests, especially given that there were many isolated areas of the park where a guest could corner an employee. For a park whose main attraction was fundamentally a form of {{LARP}}ing, the lack of any of the sort of structure or consent and safety guidelines that [=LARPers=] normally use quickly became a glaring issue. |
| 181 | ** One incident in 2019 that went down in infamy came to be known as "The Night Evermore Went Dark". During the Halloween event, as part of the park's long-running storyline, monsters rushed into seemingly safe areas as they took over the park, leading the character actors to help the guests escape the park in a hurry. When the gates reopened, the park was eerily empty. While longtime Evermore guests thought the experience was awesome, first-time visitors felt cheated, as their time in the park had been brought to a premature end well before the announced closing time, to say nothing of how the event could've easily been mistaken by some guests for [[AllPartOfTheShow an actual disaster]] like a mass shooting. |
| 182 | ** Even more bad publicity came in December 2020, when Music/TaylorSwift released her album ''Music/{{evermore|2020}}''. Initially, Evermore Park reacted positively and saw Swift's album as something that could draw visitors, but that changed in February 2021 when the park sued Swift for $2 million for copyright infringement. Swift and her legal team fought back, not only refuting each of the park's claims point by point but also launching their own countersuit for playing her music in the park without licensing it first. The park wisely backed down and dropped its lawsuit soon after, as did Swift, but the reputational damage would not go away so quickly, as fans who supported the [=GoFundMe=] were angry that the park was using their money to launch a FrivolousLawsuit against a pop singer while letting go of their performers. It didn't help that, according to a former park employee who [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9OhTB5eBqQ&lc=UgwfI03VbNRTZ8nCGAx4AaABAg commented]] on Nicholson's video, the layoffs were widely rumored behind the scenes to have been done in order to use the money that would've gone to their paychecks for the lawsuit instead, such that she even called it the "Swift Purge". |
| 183 | ** Evermore obviously lacked the budget of a big chain theme park, but it was widely observed that the budget they did have was extremely poorly managed, with SkewedPriorities abound. Ornate, expensive scenery from Europe had been purchased and imported to the park, often at a cost of up to tens of thousands of dollars apiece, even when basic pieces of infrastructure and show-buildings were left half-complete as their contractors sued the park over not being paid. Thousands were spent on high-end animatronics and digital features that either quickly malfunctioned or were just never switched on to begin with. The Taylor Swift lawsuit revealed that despite InvisibleAdvertising being a common complaint thrown at the park, Evermore spent $300,000 to acquire their web domain and at least $406,835 on general advertising. At the same time that the park was splashing out five and six-figure amounts on individual bits of theming, they balked at paying $1,700 for a music licence. |
| 184 | ** When Nicholson visited Evermore after its reopening in June 2021 to shoot footage for her video on it, she found that little had changed since 2018, and what ''had'' changed was for the worse. The park's website was a broken mess that caused her to lose her money twice trying to buy tickets, though fortunately, an attendant let her and her group in for free as an apology. Within the park itself, while the parts that ''were'' finished looked beautiful, especially when lit up at night, large parts remained unfinished. There were [[NoOSHACompliance safety hazards]] all over the place, from visible wires strewn about to the archery range having very few safety precautions. The quests were either nonsensical, operated on the honor system, or involved simple fetch quests, and either way, they barely seemed to matter. Guests had very little agency over the ongoing story, being mostly observers instead of active participants like the park promised. |
| 185 | ** In April 2024, Evermore Park, after plodding along for several years while unpaid bills piled up, finally [[https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2024/04/09/utahs-fantasy-themed-evermore-park/ closed its doors for good.]] Among its employees and fans alike, the general sense was that this announcement was a long time coming and that the only surprise was that it didn't happen sooner. Few have anything nice to say about Bretschneider, who they believe built the park with little in the way of a clear plan and then proceeded to run it into the ground. |
| 186 | * ''Ride/LostIslandThemePark'' in Iowa suffered a fire during construction that took out the queue building and control system for the Yuta Falls flume ride. Construction delays and supply chain issues would see the park's June 2022 opening with several other attractions not being ready. While some would finish their inspections and open within the following week, the Matugani roller coaster would spend the season waiting for replacement brake motor parts and the Nika's Gift carousel would end up being pushed back into the 2024 season from manufacturer delays. These delays would result in low attendance (though things would pick up near the end of the summer) and combined with staffing issues, the park would end its season early (being intended to operate during weekends in September in conjunction with the minigolf and go-karts over at the Lost Island Waterpark complex) at the end of August. |
| 187 | * The story of AOIA, an wild multi-part complex in Japan as told by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8fVb8GoAo4&ab_channel=ThemeParkCrazy this video]] from Theme Park Crazy. AOIA was the brainchild of Rokko Development Plan, a subsidiary of the Seiyo Real Estate Corporation, a massive theme park resort built on the man-made island of Rokko Island in Kobe. AOIA would have a segmented opening release schedule, intending on transforming Rokko Island into the premiere Japanese tourist destination. The first was Splash Garden Water Park in 1991, followed by Dynavox indoor theme park in 1992; 1993 saw numerous additions including the Dynabaan amusement park, the Canal, the Ocean Deck and a marina dock. There were plans for a hotel complex called the Gatehouse, to be opened in 1993 as well, but was pushed back to 1994 due to Seiyo's financial troubles. However, 1995 saw everything come crashing down when the 7.3 Kobe earthquake struck on January 17, ravaging the city and the park. While a number of rides, including Splash Garden's iconic "Super Whooper" water slide were spared, the earthquake caused too much damage and, on top of Japan's economy bubble having burst in early 1991, it was decided that it was financially infeasible to try and rebuild and AOIA was shuttered. It was suggested that, even if the earthquake hadn't struck, the appearance of Universal Studios Japan just a few miles away years later would have caused AOIA to be shuttered. |
| 188 | * Freedomland U.S.A. opened in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity the Bronx]] in 1960 as an amusement park themed around [[{{Eagleland}} American history and culture]], the brainchild of a New York construction mogul and the chief developer of Ride/{{Disneyland}}. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong As [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSMVeypDWog this video]] by WebVideo/{{Defunctland}} lays out, ''everything''. |
| 189 | ** C. V. Wood, the designer, vice president, and general manager of Disneyland, saw his relationship with Creator/WaltDisney grow strained after the park's opening in 1955. Walt blamed him for the chaos of opening day, with its lack of crowd control and non-functional attractions, and once the park found its footing, he felt that Wood was trying to take undue credit for its success and turn the park's creative department against him. As a result, Wood was ousted in January 1956, as Walt was afraid of a repeat of the situation with ''WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit'' where he'd lose control of his creation. Undeterred, Wood took his experience with Disneyland and used it to start his own amusement park company, Marco Engineering, and hired many former Disneyland employees to work for him instead. In 1957, he came up with an idea for a park based on American history, and in late 1958 he pitched the idea to William Zeckendorf, Sr., owner of the real estate development firm Webb and Knapp and an investor in two of his previous parks, Magic Mountain (later Heritage Square)[[note]]No relation to [[Ride/SixFlags Six Flags Magic Mountain]][[/note]] outside UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} and Pleasure Island outside UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}. Zeckendorf liked the idea, and in early 1959 they selected a site in the northeast Bronx, a former municipal landfill atop a marsh. On April 30, 1959, they announced Freedomland to the world, with the groundbreaking ceremony held on August 26. |
| 190 | ** While construction went smoothly on the surface (a fire that destroyed six unfinished buildings winding up [[AllPartOfTheShow worked into the theming]] of the Chicago Fire attraction), behind the scenes the park ran deeply overbudget. The originally anticipated price tag of $15.5 million was immediately eaten up by the $30 million cost of leasing the land for the park, with the final price tag reaching $65 million. On opening day, the park was $7 million in debt and major investors were pulling out, which allowed Zeckendorf to expand his share of ownership in the park's holding company to over 40%. Wood insisted that these costs kept the park from achieving its ambitions. What's more, New York's harsher weather compared to Anaheim, California meant that Freedomland couldn't remain open year-round like Disneyland, instead operating seasonally from June to October. However, the announcement of the 1964 New York World's Fair during construction gave them hope, as they believed that the World's Fair would draw countless tourists into the city, some of whom would likely come to their park. |
| 191 | ** Opening day was originally planned for July 1, 1960 (just in time for the Independence Day weekend), but was moved up to June 18 thanks to high demand, and accompanied by an advertising blitz throughout the New York area. [[GoneHorriblyRight It worked too well.]] By noon, the parking lot was full and visitors were parking on side streets up to a mile from the park, with radio announcers telling people to stay away, and at 2:05 PM the park stopped selling tickets because of the traffic in the area. What's more, the park was only about 85% finished on opening day, with bathrooms few and far between, drinking fountains not working, many exhibits not yet painted or decorated, and several attractions (including the Chicago Fire and the entire Satellite City area) closed. It was a repeat of Disneyland's Black Sunday, but it was a success that saw over 60,000 visitors, and many reviews called it a credible East Coast rival to Disneyland. |
| 192 | ** Unfortunately, the first few months of operation brought a number of high-profile incidents that tarnished Freedomland's image. One of the stagecoaches overturned shortly after opening and left ten riders, including three children, injured. On August 27, the park's cash control center was robbed for over $28,000, the culprits caught when one of them turned himself in because he thought he didn't get his fair share of the loot and wanted to get back at his partners in crime. What's more, the park's financial problems led Zeckendorf to take more control over its operations, having it open only on weekends and sidelining many of Wood's men, while Wood himself had moved on to planning [[Ride/SixFlags Six Flags Over Texas]]. By the time it closed for the season on October 30, Freedomland had drawn only a million and a half visitors, short of the two million needed for the park to break even and far short of their goal of 4.5 million. |
| 193 | ** Over the next few years, Freedomland became a money pit for Zeckendorf, who added new attractions, auctioned off unused land around the park, opened the park in April for the 1963 season, and restructured assets from his other companies to pay for it, hoping that the 1964 World's Fair would be the turning point. It was no use, as the park soon began to circle the drain no matter what Zeckendorf tried, especially as it became clear that the World's Fair, which Disney provided [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_New_York_World%27s_Fair#Disney_influence a number of key attractions]] for, was shaping up to be more of a ''competitor'' to Freedomland than a complement to it. In July 1964, Zeckendorf, his entire real estate empire crumbling by that point, sold his stake in Freedomland's parent company, and in September, the park closed for the season for the last time, with over $27 million in debt. Zeckendorf described Freedomland as [[MyGreatestFailure the biggest mistake he ever made]]. |
| 194 | ** Today, the land on which Freedomland once stood is the site of Co-op City, a housing development home to over 40,000 people. |
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