Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- VelociCoaster (Islands of Adventure)
In the theme park industry, two of the biggest names worldwide are Disney and Universal. Armed with big IPs and big budgets, their parks are quite unlike any others on Earth, and naturally, this has led a lot of smaller parks worldwide to try and emulate them over the years. These emulation attempts have had… variable success. Some have turned out quite well, but with some, it’s been quite obvious that the park lacks the Disney/Universal budget to do those Disney/Universal ideas justice. With this in mind, I’d be keen to know; which parks and rides do you feel have had ideas worthy of a Disney/Universal park, but not quite had the budget to back them up?
I’ll get the ball rolling with my answer. The reason for me actually making this thread was because with the recent conversation around Londinium at Parc Asterix, as well as Minecraft at Chessington, it got me thinking about an existing Intamin Multidimensional Coaster that fits this brief impeccably: Uncharted at PortAventura. It seems very much like PortAventura wanted something akin to Gringotts at Universal with a more substantial coaster section, with screens, spinning cars and all kinds of tricks. And they got quite close, to be fair; the ride system is excellent and shows serious ambition, the facade is excellent, and the queue theming is excellent. However, the on-ride theming is pretty subpar, mostly consisting of black walls and middling quality screens. It does feel like they ran out of money when they got to the theming of the actual coaster section, which is a shame; with how excellent the ride system, queue and facade are, I think Uncharted could have been something quite special had they done more with the on-ride theming.
But I’d be keen to know; what parks and rides do you think have attempted Disney/Universal style ideas and not quite had the budget to back them up?
I’ll get the ball rolling with my answer. The reason for me actually making this thread was because with the recent conversation around Londinium at Parc Asterix, as well as Minecraft at Chessington, it got me thinking about an existing Intamin Multidimensional Coaster that fits this brief impeccably: Uncharted at PortAventura. It seems very much like PortAventura wanted something akin to Gringotts at Universal with a more substantial coaster section, with screens, spinning cars and all kinds of tricks. And they got quite close, to be fair; the ride system is excellent and shows serious ambition, the facade is excellent, and the queue theming is excellent. However, the on-ride theming is pretty subpar, mostly consisting of black walls and middling quality screens. It does feel like they ran out of money when they got to the theming of the actual coaster section, which is a shame; with how excellent the ride system, queue and facade are, I think Uncharted could have been something quite special had they done more with the on-ride theming.
But I’d be keen to know; what parks and rides do you think have attempted Disney/Universal style ideas and not quite had the budget to back them up?