Is it too early to start talking about 2010?

[Bud Parsley]

And the answer, of course, is no.

So....................

Given the fact that they really didn't add any new rides in 2009, what do you think 2010 will bring. I guess you could argue that Scarywood was a new attraction - or better yet a new event - but where do you think SW goes from here?

Make no mistake that in recent years they have more often than not done huge additions.

I'd like to see one or more of the following, personally:

-New flat ride(s). Something big and fun that you can't find at the average fair or traveling carnival. Silverwood, for all that is good about it, has the worst collection of flats I've ever seen. Something like a Huss Giant Frisbee would have huge capacity, and be an incredible sight to see. Think of the crowds that ride would draw (both riders and spectators).

-TLC to Garfield's Summer Camp. This area is run down and needs a lot of love, including more rides and attractions, and it seriously needs to be expanded. Maybe even moved to another location, if space is a constraint.

-Dark ride? I'm a bit iffy on this one, only because I think a good dark ride is very hard to come by. More times than not they end up looking childish or stupid, and a lot of them lose their charm when things quit working properly. However, if Silverwood took a few lessons from Enchanted Forest's Challenge of Mondor, they'd be on the right track.

-Coaster. I'm not really a huge advocate of Silverwood getting a new coaster at this point, but if they did, I'd like to see a family style coaster such as a Wild Mouse (even better yet, a spinning wild mouse) or junior suspended coaster.

-Boulder Beach. Boulder Beach is great and really does not NEED anything new, however, the one thing I'd love to see is a Proslide Tornado. The only problem with those is the wait in line can be absolutely brutal.

So those are my thoughts. Yours?

[65skylark]

I would honestly be surprised of Silverwood added anything next year. I do think they will expand on their Halloween event now that they have the first run out of the way and know a little more about what to expect.

The thing is, after getting Deja Vu, expanding the water park, adding the drop tower, they can really get a lot of mileage out of those additions for several years. There are a lot of people like myself from outside of the Spokane/Coeur d' Alene area but still within driving distance that visit the park maybe every two or three years. I still haven't been on Aftershock and am looking forward to doing the Halloween event next year now that they have a better feel for things.

Basically, I just don't see them continuing on the current pace they have been on over the last three years. Of course, I could certainly be wrong.

[jspider]

There is reason to fear a certain amount of overexpansion. The last thing I'd like to see is Silverwood try to grow too fast and then end up paying the price for it in the many years following.

There's always going to be a need for some balance though as new things are what will draw further attendance.

I think this year is still fairly stable so perhaps they should just do a good advertising campaign along with alot of small changes to the park. If Garfields land really needs to be moved that's something to start looking into. I'd mainly look at how to improve the gardening and perhaps flatride layout to make future expansion that much easier.

Of course I'm a bit of a scenery nut I suppose. It'd be nice to see a bit more theming to the different lands though. Maybe some nightime lighting on the coasters (especially the corkscrew).

Overall I think they just need to look towards getting more mazes in line for next Halloween and creating more awareness of the Halloween event as well.

After a season of refining Halloween and maybe the park in general I'd say do a few new flatrides and then only then consider a darkride or Wild Mouse coaster.

A wild mouse could add great variety to the parks offerings and a darkride would probably need to be interactive in some way to keep the visitors entertained.

[wolfblood]

Well since the current season is over, it's perfectly fine to talk about next years.

In my opinon, the newest additions to the park will probably be new mazes for Scarywood.

Now when it comes to the park during the regular season, I believe they should focus on family and kiddie rides to balance things out...especially since the past two attractions added to the park were thrill rides.

I'd say get a couple rides from Zamperla, they're pretty much the dominant force in family and kiddie flatrides.

As for a family coaster, I'd go with Vekoma on this one. They offer a better variety of family coasters, from the Roller Skater and Suspended Family Coaster...to the mine train and normal family coaster.

If everything went my way, I'd have the park get a Indoor Vekoma family coaster...with the theme being a Drive-In theater. The coaster cars are classic cars with built in speakers for a custom soundtrack, and the ride would start off by going right through the screen and into a cheesy B-Movie. The movie would be a Sci-Fi flick since there are plenty of effects they can use for the ride. (They could also do a special Halloween layover to the theme of a Grindhouse double horror feature.)

As for a darkride, well they can easily go with an interactive darkride from the Sally Corperation.

They can also put in a Vekoma Madhouse since It's somthing many people have never seen before, that and I have a soft spot for that kind of ride.

On the subject of a wild mouse, I'm not entirely for it since many parks have these and it's mainly a off the shelf model. However, I would be for a Gerstlauer bobsled coaster. Mainly due to it's a much better kind of wild mouse, and it's usually a custom model.

[skinnyguy]

I like a lot of the ideas that have been mentioned already. For sure, they need to increase the attractions at Scarywood, but as has been stated, that is kind of a given.

I would say either expand Garfield's Summer Camp, or add a more family-geared attraction (small coaster, say, a spinner, wild mouse, or JSC...or a GOOD dark ride). I like the idea of a big flat ride, but those often make me sick, so I wouldn't be as excited about it since, depending on the ride, I might not even want to try it out. I agree, though, that it would be a huge draw to the park.

I keep saying every year that I think they are going to take a break from adding something new, but every year for a while now, they prove me wrong - I guess we'll have to see.

[styvx]

expand the halloween event. more mazes and monsters. add another big coaster. flat rides are for the fair and kiddies have enough to do at sw already.

-styvx

[voodoobones]

I would say more family type rides. As far as dark rides, there are so many possibilities. If you take Disney land for instance they really have done well with dark rides. Just think about the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Alice, Snow White, and the list goes on. Even Splash Mountain is a bit of a dark ride.

I agree that the landscaping and theming needs to continue to be worked on. Even expand the park to the woods. Take the train to the other side.

However, I think they are ready for the hotel and should maybe start on that.

[jspider]

Dec 3, 2009 19:36:35 GMT -8 voodoobones said:

I would say more family type rides. As far as dark rides, there are so many possibilities. If you take Disney land for instance they really have done well with dark rides. Just think about the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Alice, Snow White, and the list goes on. Even Splash Mountain is a bit of a dark ride.

I agree that the landscaping and theming needs to continue to be worked on. Even expand the park to the woods. Take the train to the other side.

However, I think they are ready for the hotel and should maybe start on that.

Family market is great and brings in alot of money. However you need to be aware that darkrides take ALOT more money to maintain and take a good deal of special work to remain repeatable.

Disney has an incredible amount of security deployed in its darkrides to protect them.


I do think a darkride should be planned for the parks future. But they need to pace themselves correctly for it. Interactive ones do better for repeat riders. If they can get it to match the western theme of the park that'd be great. I suppose Garfield would also be understandable (though I don't find the character to be active/engaging enough for a darkride).

Hence why I'd argue to increase the immersiveness of the park in general. Perhaps spice up the log flume and add more scenery to look at for the classic cars ride. The idea of some truely unique flatrides not found at most fairs is also good.

Why not take some ideas from Knotts before it got taken over by Cedar Fair? maybe some walkthrough attractions like a silver mine or something Update and spruce up some old Haunted Shack ideas with it.

[wolfblood]

Dec 5, 2009 17:08:58 GMT -8 jspider said:

Dec 3, 2009 19:36:35 GMT -8 voodoobones said:

I would say more family type rides. As far as dark rides, there are so many possibilities. If you take Disney land for instance they really have done well with dark rides. Just think about the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Alice, Snow White, and the list goes on. Even Splash Mountain is a bit of a dark ride.

I agree that the landscaping and theming needs to continue to be worked on. Even expand the park to the woods. Take the train to the other side.

However, I think they are ready for the hotel and should maybe start on that.

Family market is great and brings in alot of money. However you need to be aware that darkrides take ALOT more money to maintain and take a good deal of special work to remain repeatable.

Disney has an incredible amount of security deployed in its darkrides to protect them.


I do think a darkride should be planned for the parks future. But they need to pace themselves correctly for it. Interactive ones do better for repeat riders. If they can get it to match the western theme of the park that'd be great. I suppose Garfield would also be understandable (though I don't find the character to be active/engaging enough for a darkride).

Hence why I'd argue to increase the immersiveness of the park in general. Perhaps spice up the log flume and add more scenery to look at for the classic cars ride. The idea of some truely unique flatrides not found at most fairs is also good.

Why not take some ideas from Knotts before it got taken over by Cedar Fair? maybe some walkthrough attractions like a silver mine or something Update and spruce up some old Haunted Shack ideas with it.

You certainly do bring up a lot of good points jspider, dark rides are more pricy considering the matenince...but done right the payoff is great.

As for a Garfield dark ride, well I've been to Kennywood over in Pittsburgh and they converted their over 100 year old boat ride "The Old Mill" into "Garfield's Nightmare"...needless to say, Garfield's Nightmare is pathetic and I can understand why many people are happy at the rumor of Kennywood ditching Garfield and bringing back the original theme.

As for sprucing up the log flume, to me the only thing they really can do is spruce up the second half of the ride. (aka, the dam)

As for walkthroughs and Haunted Shacks, they go in the catagory of "Would be nice, but probably won't happen with todays restrictions." Due to lack of wheelchair access, there hasn't been any new Haunted Shacks in theme parks...the same thing can be said for walk throughs. Which is a shame since parks like Kennywood show you can keep a walk through in great shape and it'll still be popular with guests. (Noah's Ark)

None the less, reguarding the regular season...Silverwood should focus on family/kiddie attractions and probably the hotel. If there's one thing I'd hate to see it would be the park turning into Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain where it's more coasters and thrill rides then anything else.

[jspider]

Wow Wolfblood with every post you show you REALLY know your stuff.

I tend to know a bit about Disney cause I have family that works in Imagineering but you must go to alot more of the smaller parks around the US then me.


I tend to forget about how many smaller parks have at least one darkride. They're still a nightmare to maintain though.

It'd be cool of they could do an old mill or at maybe I'm thinking more a pirates style flume. Is it ok if I'm actually concerned about it having too much capacity? I mean I know that more capacity is better for the customer but it usually reflects bad on a ride if it has no wait. I've never been mid summer but most of the time Silverwood's waits are pretty light which is great for me but I know how some customers can get.

I like your idea of an indoor darkride, it'd be pretty fun. I suppose I'd once again say I'd be fine with it if they could theme it to a mine of some sort .

Haha, I just love the western feel of the park I suppose and think they could make it even more invovling with a bit more work.


The park definitly needs to nail a few family rides and a darkride could certainly be the hit with familys that the park could surf on for a while. If they're going to risk the old bus bar system they'll definitily have to go with the interactive route. But a nice scenery based ride should probably have a boat for its main ride system.



Oh yeah and I looked up that Garfield attraction pretty much everything went wrong that could. Garfield is just lazy and that doesn't work well for a ride which is about action. I like how they even take your picture Superstar Limo style . I suppose maybe you could make something work if you did an animated style with projections (thinking Epcot's Grand Fiesta Tour here).