What do you think of BG's "Haunted Lighthouse"?

[StevenT]

I have a season pass to Busch Gardens, and I recently checked out their much hyped "Haunted Lighthouse 4-D" Personally I thought it was lacking. It was a really cheesy done show. Personally I was expecting them to spend some money and get some good visual effects for the film. The only good part was Christopher Lloyd . Other than him starring in it, it was pretty much terrible. I miss Dolphins of the Deep

What do you think?

By the way, I know BG is in Tampa, and this is an Orlando board, but it's close enough

 

[MrPromey]

I found a lot wrong with it (which I outlines somewhere in this section around the time that it opened) but there are a few things we have to take into account:

First and biggest is the fact that we’ve all been spoiled by the great 3D attractions in the Orlando area. Mind you, I think Magic Journey’s which was Epcot’s original 3D movie was better than this but Bush Gardens operates on a MUCH smaller budget than Disney and Universal when it comes to attraction development.

Also, Bush Gardens relies on local traffic for a large chunk of their business. A lot of these people can’t really afford to spend a vacation in Orlando and don’t really consider WDW and Universal to be a day trip for whatever reason. This is rather obvious by the payment options that Bush Gardens offers for their passes these days with annual passes that can be paid for over the course of a year with prices starting at around $6 a month. As hard as it is to believe, there are a LOT of people who have lived most or all of their lives in the Tampa Bay area without every going to WDW or Universal. I would think that these people would be a lot easier to impress than us with this kind of attraction.

Another point is that this attraction is by virtue of the author, creator, or whatever you want to call him tied to the Goosebumps books which were developed specifically for kids so the intended audience probably would find it more entertaining (in a Disney, The Haunted Mansion – the movie sort of way) than you and me…

All if this being said, the attraction makes no sense being where it is since it is in an area of the park that is otherwise represented by buildings that look like they are built out of a desert and there is no external representation of any kind of lighthouse…. Likewise, the interior of the theater is about as well themed to a haunted lighthouse as is inside of the theaters at my local AMC theater which is something they probably could have afforded to do more with considering the movie is a carbon copy of one that was already being shown in another Bush park. The way it is set up now, it seems like they could take down the sign out front and start showing Rocky Horror Picture Show in there without needing to change anything and it would have about as much to do with the park and this area of it as what is in there now. :brick:

In the end though, I have to give them credit. Attractions like this and Rhino Rally may actually be rather lame compared to what is available in the Orlando area but at least they are making a serious effort to offer more layered and themed attractions. I mean, they could have always taken the easier ( and at least with Rhino) considerably cheaper rout by simply plopping in another B&M coaster.

 

[StevenT]

Originally posted by MrPromey
I mean, they could have always taken the easier ( and at least with Rhino) considerably cheaper rout by simply plopping in another B&M coaster.

Yes it is good that Busch is trying to produce more themed attractions. However the fact remains that "plopping in another B&M coaster" would be much more fun.

 

[ogryn]

Great Thorpe Park is getting The Haunted Lighthouse to replace Pirates 4D (starring Leslie Nilson and Eric Idol (boy does that guy pimp himself out)).

Pirates 4D is quite good, so I was hoping for a better replacement.


I think BG should be careful about how many more coasters it plops in. I, for one, am all for more coasters, but last time we went the rest of the familiy didn't have enough to do. (Mum, Step-Dad, 5 Year old Brother). My Mum got Whip-lash off Gwazi (nasty-nasty coaster) so wouldn't do anything else big. Step-Dad gets motion-sick. So rides like Rhino Rally, although not the best in the world, allow the whole family to experience something slightly exciting.

 

[MrPromey]

Originally posted by ogryn
Great Thorpe Park is getting The Haunted Lighthouse to replace Pirates 4D (starring Leslie Nilson and Eric Idol (boy does that guy pimp himself out)).

Pirates 4D is quite good, so I was hoping for a better replacement.


I think BG should be careful about how many more coasters it plops in. I, for one, am all for more coasters, but last time we went the rest of the familiy didn't have enough to do. (Mum, Step-Dad, 5 Year old Brother). My Mum got Whip-lash off Gwazi (nasty-nasty coaster) so wouldn't do anything else big. Step-Dad gets motion-sick. So rides like Rhino Rally, although not the best in the world, allow the whole family to experience something slightly exciting.

And I think that Bush Entertainment has begun to realize that if they want to even try to make Bush Gardens Tampa a world class park, they have to start catering to more of a family audience…

They have the dragon area which is great if there is an adult that wants to just sit around and watch the kids play while everyone else goes off and does coasters. This may be a strategy that may work fine with the locals who take advantage of the buy one ticket and come back all year promotion (that is sort of ending this year) but it clearly isn’t really appealing to the out of town guests.

They are preparing to invest in some major renovations to the parking situation that to me is about fifteen years past due but when all of this goes through, they may be able to add another 25-30% in guest area for the park. I’m guessing that with all this effort, they have to start attracting more of the tourist crowd than they have up to this point to make it worth their while.

 

[NemoRocks78]

First off, i'd liked to say that Haunted Lighthouse 4D was very dull. I didn't enjoy a bit of it, and once again, the only good thing about it was that Chris Lloyd and Lea Thompson, both from the BTTF trilogy, were in it.

Now, about Busch Gardens. Lately they've been slacking on attractions. The new show coming in sounds promising, but Cheetah Chase, the new wild-mouse, is just a used coaster being brought in from BG Williamsburg. BGW is a great park though, maybe BGT should take some of their ideas and put it into their own park.