Volume 2, No. 9. May 24, 2002
New Arrivals
It’s
a dark ride!
Six Flags St. Louis in Eureka, Missouri, announces the arrival of Scooby-Doo!
Ghostblasters—The Mystery of the Scary Swamp, May 18, 2002. Measurements:
32,000 square feet (9,697 square meters), 650-foot-long water trough (197 meters),
25 scenes, 117 Ghostblaster targets, 22 four-passenger boats, 70,000 gallons
of water (266,000 liters), five-minute ride. Delivered by Sally Corporation.
You would think the last thing St. Louis wanted was more water in the news.
Weeks of record rainfall had caused flooding around the metropolitan area and
swelled the Mississippi River to dangerous levels. However, the city was abuzz
with anticipation about the new attraction going into their Six Flags park,
a ride featuring a dog in a swamp.
That dog is named Scooby-Doo, and the swamp is a makeover of a boat ride that
originated with the 32-year-old park as Injun Joe’s Cave (and had
been resurrected in less-than-successful guises twice between Joe and
Scooby). The new ride promised in addition to a succession of scenes
a chance for guests to manipulate those scenes by firing at targets with handheld
laser lights. For Six Flags St. Louis, it was also a major offering aimed at
the too-often-overlooked family market, a demographic that dominates this region
more so than perhaps any other Six Flags market. “It’s nice to have
something that’s not wet and not outside,” said Hollie Goodwin of
nearby Fenton, a guest with her children, 8 and 11, at the media preview two
days before the public opening. “I’m sure we’ll be on it all
the time.”
“It’s not often a dark ride is the premier ride of the park; here
it is,” said Howard Kelly, Sally’s president. “We’re not
normally the opening act of the new season.” Sally has been building its
interactive dark rides since 1996, and has done three other Scooby-Doo! Ghostblasters
versions (one opening at Fiesta Texas the same day as the St. Louis version;
see story below). The Mystery of the Scary Swamp is
Sally’s first interactive boat ride, and it takes the company’s successful
formula to a new level of entertainment value. As guests leisurely float through
more scenes filled with more gags, the pace is such that they can appreciate
the ride’s artistry and subtle humor, all the while scoring more points
with their Fright Lights.
The region’s persistent rainfall doused the Thursday media day, featuring
Scooby’s creator, animator Iwao Takamoto, and families representing two
local children’s hospitals. More rain deluged the school groups visiting
the park the next day when Scooby was put through its first public paces. The
ride’s opening to the general public dawned promisingly enough, a clear
albeit chilly day—the first sunny weekend for Six Flags St. Louis this
year—with a gospel festival promising to drawing bigger-than normal crowds.
When the gates opened, much of that crowd ran to Scooby, where, 15 minutes
before, a power spike blew one of the ride’s boards. A quick fix got the
ride operating within an hour, and it soldiered on even as a the local utility
blew a substation later in the morning that darkened about four-fifths of the
park. Scooby maintained two to three-hour waits throughout the day—a little
longer when all the parks’ coasters sat dormant during the two-hour power
outage—and appeared to fulfill that all-important demographic Sally touts
with its dark rides: 8 to 80.
The ride also won kudos from Takamoto, whose passage through The Mystery
of the Scary Swamp was his first experience on a Sally ride. “It’s
very good,” he said. “It has a feeling of what the show had. One of
the things they managed to do is understand that it is not a total scare show,
it is a comedy mystery. And that, I think, the ambiance has captured. I’ve
seen a lot of people try and miss.”
Congratulations
for a successful delivery!
For more photos
and information on Scooby-Doo Ghostblasters—The Mystery of the Scary
Swamp,
Click Here
For a story about the ride's design, see the June issue of Amusement Today.
©2002, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved
