Following the success of our Best Ride in America Tournament, Theme Park Insider is going to run a tournament to find the best theme park attraction that no longer exists. We're calling it the 'King of the Theme Park Graveyard Tournament.' But we need your nominations to select and seed the entrants.
(Thanks to TPI reader Olivier Sanguy for the idea for this tournament, BTW.)
So I've set up a page through which you may submit your nominations for the tournament. Just submit the names of the attractions you most miss (and the park they were in). I will use the submissions, couple with my own judgment, to select and seed the dead attractions that will be in the tournament.
Then... we'll vote. Same as last time - a single elimination tournament working down to a final match-up. Dates TBA, as I won't know until I see the nominations how many attractions will be in this tournament. But I'd like to get the nominations wrapped up by next Friday, May 2.
Finally, I am looking for photos that I can include on the tournament vote posts, as we won't have attraction listing pages for most of these rides and show. So you've taken some photos of the old, closed rides that you've nominated that you'd like to submit, the nominations page will tell you how to get them to me. I could use a logo for the tournament, as well, if there's anyone with time and graphic design skills that would like to whip up one.
Thanks, and I hope that everyone has a great deal of fun with this one!
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In general, I think it's perfectly fair that people may miss a ride even though it has a clone elsewhere. You may really miss a ride at your hometown park, even if you could see it again by traveling across the country.
And certainly, older versions of attractions may be missed. I'm sure I'm not the only person who preferred the original versions of Journey into Imagination and the Disneyland subs.
As for shows that have changed, I think they are fair game. If our tournament causes one of these theme park companies to bring back a beloved show that has been out of service for a long time...well, that is the goal, right?
However, what about attractions that are not officially closed, and still lurk behind closed doors, like Body Wars and Cranium Command at Epcot? All Disney needs is a new sponsor for the Life Pavilion and these two gems could be back in service with a minor refurb. Not sure what to do about them....
A question I do have is this. Is there a certain year that we would go back to before a cutoff? There are several worthy attractions that were closed from 1960-1980ish, but I'm not sure how many of the readers would be in touch with these attractions. I'm too young to have ridden most of those particular rides myself, but my studies show that many of those rides had significant impact on their parks and the industry as a whole.
No limits, I say. Granted, older attractions might have a tougher go in the voting, but I certainly want 'em in.
BTW, we have already 16 rides with multiple nominations, so I think we'll be able to do a 32-attraction tournament by the time the nominations are closed.
Then I got to thinking about just how many of these things there actually are. Just top of mind, there are all the different Haunted Mansions (including the cool Boot Hill in DLP and the mausoleum in WDW). And I remember a grave at Knott's years ago that you'd stand on and feel the heart beating through the sod (is that still there?). And Hard Rock Park has its Heavy Metal Graveyard. Even the Columbus Zoo has one it hauls out for Halloween (featuring the graves of extinct animal species--by far the most morbid of these graveyards I have seen). And thinking about this, I realized just how much of a themed attraction idiom the mock graveyard has become. And for some reason themeparkinsider.com was focusing on this very fact!
Then I read the whole article and realized I am just a tool.
Anyone nominating Superstar Limo should be reported to the authorities, of course.
-Batman and Robin: The Chiller
-Rocket Rods
-PeopleMover at DL CA
-Superstar Limo
-Snow White show at DL
-20K Under the Sea at WDW MK.
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A couple questions, though: First, I'm not inclined to include dead attractions that have a clone living elsewhere. Specifically, I'm thinking about Mr. Toad' Wild Ride at WDW (which lives on at Disneyland), and Country Bear Jamboree at DL (which lives on at WDW).
Should dead clones be in, or out?
Second, on Country Bear, even though the show lives at WDW, they've not run the Christmas version for several years. To me, that's fair game for the tournament. Heck, I'd love to see something so easily brought back from the graveyard do well in the tournament. But how closely do we want to cut distinctions between versions of the same attraction? Should the old Universe of Energy show at Epcot be eligible, for example?
Thoughts?