Themeparksandy1981
Member
Looks so sad
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Pirate Adventure
- Thread starter Harry
- Start date
Looks so sad
Trooper Looper
Member
I really wish the people at Loopings were interested in reviving Pirate Adventure. Europa Park rebuilt their Pirate Dark ride when it burnt down, albeit having different scenes. Imagine a 'remastered' version of Pirate Adventures scenes, imagine how great the Battle and burning village scene would look!! Many of the original designers of Pirate Adventure are still alive and are still involved with Theme Park projects as consultants. Imagine if Drayton Manor (Looping specifically) would give the remaining team a go with reviving the rides with the same style and charm but obviously more advanced for the sake of maintenance and safety!
Let's hope they've gotten over the fire and would be more than happy to be involved if that ever happened, but I doubt that'll ever happen.
I'd love the park to consider it.
Drayton is really missing a good, new age dark ride in my opinion. I think the park is missing this more than anything at the moment
Themeparksandy1981
Member
I think they have got plans as they moved the castle of dreams entrance to by the zoo as that’s not part of the pirate cove area and it can be expanded to include the bounty and the arcades to go aside a re-themed pirate adventure, Jolly Buccaneer and the Dodgems. With the building been seen from different areas of the park and zoo it would cost them more if they didn’t go with the pirate theme still.
Themeparksandy1981
Member
Not sure but looking at the bit that was removed around 5 years ago. The roof been worked on during the closed season
Trooper Looper
Member
They are, but I hope they don't give it the Curse At Alton Manor treatment, but more of something like Piraten in Batavia, but aim it to be more old-school and have that cheesy style the original ride had with the wacky gags and simple animations. The UK is really lacking a proper large old school dark ride at the moment as many of them them have either been rethemed, modernised, to torn down, so it'd be nice for Loopings to not follow this current trend and try something more different and unique for a change. Many people still heavily miss the ride and love it, so I can't see why a classic style dark ride can't work again if people still really like that style of Rides.
Can't say I've ever ridden Piraten in Batavia but from what I've seen of it, I would agree. A good dark ride is one of the things the park really needs again in my opinion - its a great throughput & good for any weather too.
Would you want to see it remain with a pirate theme?
Trooper Looper
Member
I'd love then to keep the Pirate Theme, if they go the extra mile and still call it Pirate Adventure, that'd be icing on the cake. With a dark ride of this scale, I'd love it to be absent of screens and projections. Imagine a Modern dark ride with ZERO digital effects and it's all lighting and Scenery with Figures and Props. I believe Piraten In Batavia only uses a few screens and projections, but the scenes that don't have them are stellar!
That would be amazing however sometimes the screens and projections are amazing for example disneys pirates of the Caribbean in Tokyo uses the projection screens and it enhances it however I am a fan of the old school and would love to see animatronics
Trooper Looper
Member
I've seen them. They stick out like a sore thumb to me, and not in a good way. I just see screens as cost cutting measures for over ambitious ideas. Personally if I was designing a dark ride, I'd never add screens or projections as its really easy to tell what's a screen/projection and what isnt. If you want it to be immersive, using screens and projections are anything but immersive. Props and physical set pieces on the other hand are still the closest you can get to scenes looking real and FEELING real.
Trooper Looper
Member
Especially The Ghost Pepper effect. Probably the the most sine yet so iconic practical effect. Imagine the Ghost pirates done in that manner nowadays with a neat mirror trick for a final scare.
I love the Peppers Ghost effect - very effective.
The ghost pirates were great, a shame they were lost
Trooper Looper
Member
I don't know if this has already been posted here, but here's a 1993 POV of the ride and how much better it looked then to what most POVs show. It also has some footage of the Ghost Pirates!
It looks great! Wish I had the chance to ride it back then but I wasn't around then </3
Trooper Looper
Member
Same. If you think Pirate Adventure looked great, you should check out its sister ride, Los Piratas at Bellewaerde Park, also designed by Space Leisure. You'll see a lot of similar gags in it that are from Pirate Adventure. Unfortunately it closed back in 2012, but I was maintained loads better than Pirate Adventure.
Themeparksandy1981
Member
As I was talking about the coaster I did ask about the pirate adventure building and the sad news they currently got no plans for the building to be used as an attraction again but they have repaired the roof so it won’t leak.
The ride system is all still in place but the 2 reasons it was closed in the 1st place was the fire risk there isn’t a water sprinkler system fitted in the building and it needed more fire exits installed just in case there was a fire.
So even if they totally stripped the whole building they will need to add more exit doors (shouldn’t be a problem) but it’s the sprinkler system with a building that size that would cost a lot before they can think about building a indoor coaster or any other dark ride.
The ride system is all still in place but the 2 reasons it was closed in the 1st place was the fire risk there isn’t a water sprinkler system fitted in the building and it needed more fire exits installed just in case there was a fire.
So even if they totally stripped the whole building they will need to add more exit doors (shouldn’t be a problem) but it’s the sprinkler system with a building that size that would cost a lot before they can think about building a indoor coaster or any other dark ride.
alfie8
Member
Surely if they have repaired the roof it must be used for something, even if it's not an attraction? Plus they may have just been saying it won't be used as an attraction again because they can't leak (no pun intended) anything yet.
Themeparksandy1981
Member
I do know the maintenance area was cleared during the closed season and someone reported on here that the boats have been moved to the area back stage by the hotel.
I do think they were using that area to construct/built the set pieces for the new log flume.
Next time I see Victoria Lynn I will ask her about the future of the Pirate Adventure and Pirate Cove as they could be in the plans 2027 to 2032.
