Themed experiences in the UK have never been mainstream and aren't today. They are a surprise, something different, something you can't quite put your finger on but are always enjoyable – if done well. Younger generations in the UK may never know really classic themed attraction today in the UK, they will only find them abroad. Merlin to their credit have attempted them several times recently, but have always lost that basic appeal of a themed attraction in my opinion.
UK parks today are about plots of land with rides on them, not about amazing places to visit on the whole with surprises to be found. You can
undeniably see this in the strategy of all Merlin's parks.
It's like saying 'TV show isn't working because more of the people watching arent interested in TV' – so are you going to make a
better TV programme to try and engage more people, introduce them to what a good show can be like? Or are you going to give up and make box ticking trite instead, because there's less demand for anything better?
Take the Oblivion queueline full of teenagers in 1998. They have almost nothing to distract them from what is around them, they are glued to the TVs, engaging with the ride experience.
Fast forward two decades and you have many opportunities to be distracted. You can play games, chat to people on the other side of the world and do anything bar be immersed by the experience. Furthermore, there is far more cynicism surrounding far fetched narratives and to things in general.
Oblivion has no actual narrative other than what some fans may impose on it, so that's irrelevant, the preshow videos are just there to have effect. Your reasoning of the queue seems to overlook how the queue has become so worn out during those 20 years, which makes all the difference to how effective it is. Young people in particular are quick to lose interest if something is lame.
The audio is now busted in Oblivion, you can't hear a word being said, the screens are burnt-in and ancient, none of it is engaging anymore (even for me and I love Oblivion). It needs an AV overhaul and repaired buildings to make it engaging again.
Only half the queue is intended to be loud AV space like that, the rest is designed to be more subtle. People will still get be distracted in spots, they're meant to be chatting to each other, not pummeled with screens for the whole queue, which would otherwise get dull quickly (see The Swarm). That's why the screens are only at inside spaces at strategic points around the spiral queue.
People naturally feel more anticipation the closer they get to the station. If it were an endless switchback queue, there'd be no knowing when you're any nearer the end while you're chatting away. Whereas Oblivion, even if you're not paying any attention, you're conscious that you're constantly moving higher, the vertical drop is purposely framed in the distance.
More queues should be designed like Oblivion's, for the very purpose of engaging guests – but need to be updated and maintained too. What is designed around them needs to be MORE interesting than what is on their phones – some people will never get it and so be it, but fuzzy TVs, broken theming and soft audio will never engage anyone else either.
The argument that younger generations are less culturally interested in entertainment is true I find generally, and I'm of that generation and find many people to have very little of their own imagination (but not everyone). This lessens the draw for theme parks on the whole, to everyone's detriment.
Derren Brown's Ghost Train sounded amazing on paper, but was executed in the wrong way, without hitting all those cues to keep people engaged and be impressive. It speaks more on how Merlin's approach to attractions is so flawed rather than whether people today respond to themed experiences – there were certainly many people
ready to like it.
The creation and success of Nemesis, PMBO and Shockwave fundamentaly changed the direction British Theme Parks were heading. People loved the big rides and they were an almost guaranteed success. The British public demanded more headline rides, and I’ll fully admit so did I at the time. The trouble is this has lead us to the state we are at now where only the biggest and best rides get any attention.
I agree with your whole post, although I think your point about the big coasters is probably to do with a different experience on offer. The British public have always loved big coasters too, but they do a compeltely different thing to themed attractions. You can have fantastic themed coasters, like Wickerman, but that's perhaps more for fitting coasters into the theme park experience. You could also have a coaster on its own and it would have a similar draw – the thrill, but even then people love theatrics, with fire on coasters, water effects, etc. But I don't think it lessened the public's demand for themed experiences, it may have changed how the parks spent their money though.
