Hey, I just returned from a trip to Santa Cruz and ventured to an amusement park I haunted probably more than any other in my youth--Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
I hadn't been back for about a decade. Seems like they really spruced it up. Lots of fresh paint, not so many vagrants. The funniest description came from my eight year old who claimed that, "it sure is a lot like that ride area at California Adventure."
It was fun to see that they haven't messed with the infamous Giant Dipper (now 75 years young) at all, that they still offer a ton of sticky, gooey, and greasy-yummy food (deep fried artichoke hearts, mmmmm!) and that the hokey Haunted Castle is just as bad as it's always been.
Near the somewhat old Loggers Revenge Flume ride, they seemed to have added a new ride (from what I was told within the last year) that is very much like Buzz Lighyear's Space Ranger Spin. It's called Ghost Blasters. Same kind of cheapie dark ride concept except in this one, whenever you hit targets something cool happens, like ghosts appear or spooky pictures change. It was a lot of fun. But we really enjoyed Buzz a lot, too.
So the question for you is this: are there other rides like Buzz, Men In Black at Universal Florida, and Ghost Blasters out there at other theme parks? If so, what are their concepts/themes?
Because of the cause and effect interaction when you hit a target, I kind of liked what they went for in this Ghost Blasters thing better than Buzz's Spin. This ride had a score read-out, lazer guns, the whole copy-cat bit. Effects wise, it was overall a bit cheaper looking than Buzz--more like a shoot 'em up Mr. Toad's Wild Ride--lots of characters pasted onto plywood. But it also reminded me a bit of the spooky humor done in Haunted Mansion. Anyone else been on it?
I hadn't been back for about a decade. Seems like they really spruced it up. Lots of fresh paint, not so many vagrants. The funniest description came from my eight year old who claimed that, "it sure is a lot like that ride area at California Adventure."
It was fun to see that they haven't messed with the infamous Giant Dipper (now 75 years young) at all, that they still offer a ton of sticky, gooey, and greasy-yummy food (deep fried artichoke hearts, mmmmm!) and that the hokey Haunted Castle is just as bad as it's always been.
Near the somewhat old Loggers Revenge Flume ride, they seemed to have added a new ride (from what I was told within the last year) that is very much like Buzz Lighyear's Space Ranger Spin. It's called Ghost Blasters. Same kind of cheapie dark ride concept except in this one, whenever you hit targets something cool happens, like ghosts appear or spooky pictures change. It was a lot of fun. But we really enjoyed Buzz a lot, too.
So the question for you is this: are there other rides like Buzz, Men In Black at Universal Florida, and Ghost Blasters out there at other theme parks? If so, what are their concepts/themes?
Because of the cause and effect interaction when you hit a target, I kind of liked what they went for in this Ghost Blasters thing better than Buzz's Spin. This ride had a score read-out, lazer guns, the whole copy-cat bit. Effects wise, it was overall a bit cheaper looking than Buzz--more like a shoot 'em up Mr. Toad's Wild Ride--lots of characters pasted onto plywood. But it also reminded me a bit of the spooky humor done in Haunted Mansion. Anyone else been on it?
