Thirty years ago, theme parks began adding more extreme thrill rides. British amusement parks evolved from traveling fairs created just for those who wanted to "escape" for a night or day from regular life. This were done to cater to those who would gladly stand in a queue for an hour for the chance to experience the cathartic thrill of hurtling down a track at 60 miles per hour in an open-topped train.
It was around this time that coasters like The Revolution (Pleasure Beach Blackpool), The Bullet (Flamingo Land),and The Avalanche (also Pleasure Beach Blackpool) were built. The Avalanche is still the UK's only bobsleigh ride.
Basically the idea was to have the latest and greatest, most extreme coaster or other thrill ride available. As the 80s progressed, amusement parks could tell that bigger and better thrill rides would attract the most visitors. There are roller coaster clubs in the UK that meet up at theme parks just to experience some of these rides and the company of other coaster enthusiasts.
The same held true through the 90s, except that the major parks kept bumping up against the limits of what it was possible to do in terms of speed, loops, heights, or degree of drop. The benefit was to the theme park visitor, because he or she had an abundance of choices in extreme thrill rides, most of them available within easy driving distances.
Many park areas containing the most extreme thrill rides were given a more dark, sleek, almost sinister feel to enhance the sense of foreboding and danger visitors would feel as they stood in the queue. The 90's involved a huge amount of "rebranding" and redesign of theme parks.
A major innovation of the 21st century at theme parks is the introduction of virtual queuing. It is sometimes called a Fastpass and relieves the boredom of waiting in long queues by allowing visitors to visit or browse other attractions in the near area while waiting in a "virtual" line. For an extra fee, amusement parks offer pagers to all visitors that will notify them when it is their turn to ride.
Author Resource:
Andrea Smith is a freelance writer and Theme Park enthusiast from the UK. She writes for Techy Zone about roller coasters, thrill rides and theme parks in the UK.
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