So, yesterday I took my lady to Six Flags Great America. It was tons of fun! For anyone in the Illinois/Midwest area who hasn't gone, HIGHLY recommend it. They have a vast array of exciting roller coaster rides, and the park layout is very easy to navigate. It's a great place for kids as well, Bugs Bunny and all the other WB characters roam the grounds and they even have a decently sized kids area for the young'ins to play around in.
My personal favorite ride has always been the Batman ride. The real Batman ride, not that shitty Dark Knight ride no one likes, the classic Tim Burton 1992 Batman Ride. It's my favorite ride for several reasons. The main one obviously being the ride itself, its fast, smooth, and reliable as all-hell. I've not once visited the park and have not been able to go on it, despite how popular it is and how many runs it goes through each day. But, there's another reason why I love it and I feel like this aspect of the ride has gone to absolute shit the past couple years. Specifically speaking, the lead-up to the ride has been slowly getting worse as time goes by.
I can remember being a kid and being spooked by the harrowing soundtrack that plays as you walk through Gotham park into a dark, dimly lit underpass littered with trash, broken machinery, with 90s stylized graffiti painting the walls. There was a cop car you would walk past which had smoke blowing out of its engine, lights ablaze, and a walkie talkie lying near-by with a dispatcher yelling off orders. The prince soundtrack was playing in this area of the line, perfectly capturing the atmosphere of the movie. Hell, even the smell reminded you of gotham, it was like spray paint and cigarette smoke. You'd eventually be led into this dark vent with dripping precipitation and a large fan at the far end making large swooshing noises as you neared closer. Very cool. It had lights positioned behind it which created a really nifty shadow. Finally, you made your way up these steps hidden within the vent into what looked like the batcave. There were computers set up on the far-side of the wall with blinking lights and a case containing the batsuit. It was fucking awesome!
Which brings me to yesterday, it felt like the magic was gone. No graffiti, gotham park looked different (looked like they replaced much of the fauna with generic plants), and the cop car just looked like a junky prop. No walkie-talkie. Where you were once slowly led to the vent, now there was a guy in a Six flags outfit standing there slowly letting groups in through a weirdly placed gate that now stood at it's entrance. Prince was gone, replaced by generic pop music and large HDTV's playing their music videos. I didn't feel like I was in Burtons Batman anymore, it was a suprisingly large let-down for me. I understand that the ride is 20 years old now, but for someone like me, that's what I pay 50 bucks for. Anyone else have a similar story to mine?
tldr; I was let-down by the changes made to my favorite theme park ride, wondering if anyone has a similar situation
My personal favorite ride has always been the Batman ride. The real Batman ride, not that shitty Dark Knight ride no one likes, the classic Tim Burton 1992 Batman Ride. It's my favorite ride for several reasons. The main one obviously being the ride itself, its fast, smooth, and reliable as all-hell. I've not once visited the park and have not been able to go on it, despite how popular it is and how many runs it goes through each day. But, there's another reason why I love it and I feel like this aspect of the ride has gone to absolute shit the past couple years. Specifically speaking, the lead-up to the ride has been slowly getting worse as time goes by.
I can remember being a kid and being spooked by the harrowing soundtrack that plays as you walk through Gotham park into a dark, dimly lit underpass littered with trash, broken machinery, with 90s stylized graffiti painting the walls. There was a cop car you would walk past which had smoke blowing out of its engine, lights ablaze, and a walkie talkie lying near-by with a dispatcher yelling off orders. The prince soundtrack was playing in this area of the line, perfectly capturing the atmosphere of the movie. Hell, even the smell reminded you of gotham, it was like spray paint and cigarette smoke. You'd eventually be led into this dark vent with dripping precipitation and a large fan at the far end making large swooshing noises as you neared closer. Very cool. It had lights positioned behind it which created a really nifty shadow. Finally, you made your way up these steps hidden within the vent into what looked like the batcave. There were computers set up on the far-side of the wall with blinking lights and a case containing the batsuit. It was fucking awesome!
Which brings me to yesterday, it felt like the magic was gone. No graffiti, gotham park looked different (looked like they replaced much of the fauna with generic plants), and the cop car just looked like a junky prop. No walkie-talkie. Where you were once slowly led to the vent, now there was a guy in a Six flags outfit standing there slowly letting groups in through a weirdly placed gate that now stood at it's entrance. Prince was gone, replaced by generic pop music and large HDTV's playing their music videos. I didn't feel like I was in Burtons Batman anymore, it was a suprisingly large let-down for me. I understand that the ride is 20 years old now, but for someone like me, that's what I pay 50 bucks for. Anyone else have a similar story to mine?
tldr; I was let-down by the changes made to my favorite theme park ride, wondering if anyone has a similar situation
