For the better part of a century, designers have been racing toward the next best thing in ride system technology… From simple carts powered by electric bus-bars, to high-capacity boat-based dark rides; from the continuously-moving Omnimover to the debut of Disney’s Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV) in 1995 that makes guests the center of the action… At each step of the way, evolutions in ride system technology have changed the ways that designers can tell stories.
But when we looked at the Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World, one cutting edge technology stands out as the way of the future: rides untethered by tracks entirely. A new generation of trackless rides allow vehicles to do what once seemed impossible: to make choices; to diverge down new paths; to spin and dance around one another in precisely-calibrated near-collisions; to become alive.
From the simplest trackless tech (often using sensors tracking a wire embedded in the ground) to Wifi-controlled attractions and the spectacular LPS (local positioning system – that is, a micro-version of global GPS), the possibilities of going trackless are spectacular; but so are the risks. Applying this cutting edge technology doesn’t guarantee a winner…
Today, we’ll count down the planet’s biggest trackless dark rides from worst to best. Which rides do you think will come out on top? To help tell the tales of these larger-than-life technological dark rides, we’ll include a point-of-view video of each, shot by our friends at SoCal Attractions 360 (whose low-light videos often capture more than the human eye can)!
11. Hotel Transylvania
Park: Motiongate Dubai
Though most wouldn’t have believed it even a few decades ago, the Middle East has become a hotspot for theme parks. In December 2016, MOTIONGATE Dubai became one of the latest, bringing an odd mix of intellectual property from the Hunger Games series and The Green Hornet to The Smurfs and an entire Dreamworks area. A section dedicated to Columbia Pictures brings a depressingly bad Ghostbusters shooting dark ride, a Zombieland drop tower, and a trackless dark ride based on Hotel Transylvania.
And boy, is it bad. The Hotel Transylvania action mostly takes place in a large central scene with offshoot vignettes in the smaller rooms off the sides. Despite the frantic and fast-paced music, the ride creeps (no pun intended) through scenes populated by static mannequins. What could feel like a zippy, wild, out-of-control ruckus through the hotel is instead almost painfully dull. We dare you to stay tuned to the ride through video without skipping ahead!
We know, we know. “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Which is why we’ll at least offer that the ingredients of a compelling ride are here, including some nice scenic design and the unusual (if accidental) fact that the figures and action all take place on the same level as the ride vehicle rather than on obvious lifted stages. Put another way, we can see that Hotel Transylvania could’ve been a really great ride with a higher budget – with fittingly frantic pace, spinning vehicles, and a few real animatronics here and there rather than mere mannequins. As it is, it’s definitely the worst of the major trackless dark rides out there.
10. Scooby Doo: Museum of Mysteries
Park: Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi
Like Motiongate, Warner Bros. World is a product of the industry’s shift toward the Middle East and Asia. But this particular park is especially impressive, bringing lands themed to Gotham City and Metropolis (Batman and Superman, respectively), Bedrock (The Flintstones), Dynamite Gulch (Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote), and Cartoon Junction.
The latter contains Scooby Doo: Museum of Mysteries. Scooby is no stranger to dark rides, given licensing through Sally Corp. that has seen a dozen or more ghost-blasting interactive rides across Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks over the years. But Museum of Mysteries reimagines Mystery Inc. within a trackless dark ride! Twice during the attraction, the vehicles take Fred’s advice (“Let’s split up, gang!”) and pull into personalized scenes.
Of course, the Museum of Mysteries is still relatively simple compared to the kinds of rides you’d find at Disney or Universal, but it’s evidence that the trackless ride technology doesn’t always have to be a showstopping, motion-simulating, attention-grabbing attraction unto itself. In this case, the trackless aspect is hidden away and downplayed, simply used to make a classic dark ride feel more personal!
9. Empire of the Penguin
Park: SeaWorld Orlando
Beginning in 2000, Disney’s development of the modern trackless dark ride created sensational, outstanding, next generation dark rides… just, not in the U.S. Few would’ve expected that SeaWorld would be the first to bring the technology stateside, but that’s precisely what happened. In 2013, SeaWorld Orlando threw its hat into the “Wizarding World” ring with Antarctica, a rockwork-encircled 4-acre land with the Empire of the Penguin attraction as its centerpiece.
Placing a 3-degree-of-motion platform atop the trackless vehicle base, the ride cleverly offers both “Mild” and “Wild” ride programming – a neat show of the ride system’s versatility. Unfortunately, neither provides the sensational experience industry insiders hoped for. Despite concept art showing vehicles sliding around a bright and endless Arctic expanse, the Empire of the Penguin ride is quite short.
Four vehicles at a time are dispatched into a cavern of icy bubbles, viewing the first steps of a young gentoo penguin named Puck. From there, two vehicles dance around a cavern with a frozen waterfall as its centerpiece. Then, they enter a brief (and unfortunately ineffective) “simulator” before the ride’s highlight: coming face to face with the park’s real penguins. They then enter the open air (and frigid!) penguin exhibit where guests disembark.
8. Shrek’s Merry Fairytale Journey
Park: Motiongate Dubai
Though the opening day dark rides at Motiongate Dubai all have a particular… slowness to them, the park has improved since! Take Shrek’s Merry Fairytale Journey. A clever twist on the otherwise straight “book report,” the ride casts guests as attendees at Shrek and Fiona’s puppet show retelling of their love story. As a result, the figures within are mostly “puppet” style (which smartly excuses their lack of realism). But the ride is also quite well done with some clever projection effects, impressive lighting, and some scenes well beyond what Hotel Transylvania would have you expect.
What’s more, the ride is nearly 10 minutes long – quite a bit longer than even the longest ride at Universal Orlando, for example. As a matter of fact, we wouldn’t complain if this exact attraction were plucked from the UAE and placed at Universal Studios Florida! It’s the kind of screen-free, family dark ride Universal needs more of, and a property Universal now owns, at that!
7. Skull Island: Reign of Kong
Park: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
When Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990, the park’s focus on creature-feature epic encounter rides culled from Hollywood’s Studio Tour made it a favorite of families with teens. Among the movie park’s most iconic attractions was the Lost Legend: Kongfrontation. On board, guests became New Yorkers boarding the Roosevelt Island Tram to escape from the rampaging ape. Amid the wild destruction, guests encountered Kong in two raging Audio-Animatronics interactions.
Just after the New Millennium, Universal began an aggressive campaign to reinvigorate its movie park with more modern hits. Kong was one of the first to fall, making room for the Modern Marvel: Revenge of the Mummy. Just over a decade later, Universal announced the return of the king… but instead of setting Kong loose in our world, this time we’d be dropped into his. A better fit for the more mythical and literary Islands of Adventure park, the new Skull Island strands guests on the desolate, dark home island of Kong alongside the Eighth Wonder Expedition Company.
Most fans agree that Skull Island doesn’t quite live up to its legendary predecessor. But what is impressive about the ride is its vehicle. Its enormous, lumbering, 72-passenger expedition trucks aren’t just trackless transports that travel indoors and out: each vehicle has a different on-board driver and narrator brought to life by an on-ride animatronic!
6. Ratatouille: L’Aventure
Park: Walt Disney Studios and Epcot
When Disneyland Paris’ second gate opened in 2002, it was – by far – the most pathetic Disney Park on Earth. In fact, we took a walk through the underbuilt “studio” in its own standalone feature, Declassified Disaster: Walt Disney Studios. Though a few “Band-Aid” rides were added in its first decade, none could fix the park’s proverbial broken bone: its tired “studio” aesthetic and lack of anchor attractions.
The opening of Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy in 2014 was meant to change that. Not only did the ride finally dispense with “soundstage” styling in favor of an immersive and pleasant Parisian mini-land, but it also merged Disney’s trackless technology with the concept of Universal’s Modern Marvel: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, using 3D screens to expand physical sets.
Ultimately, the Ratatouille ride does succeed at giving Walt Disney Studios an exclusive hit ride (at least until its clone in Epcot opens this year), but it’s not the homerun fans hoped for. Instead, it’s a fun and frantic family adventure that feels like a next generation Fantasyland dark ride rather than a showstopper. Why? Make the jump to our Modern Marvels: Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure feature to get the full story.
5. Symbolica
Park: Efteling
The Netherlands’ Efteling is perhaps one of the beautiful parks on Earth. Built around its origins as a “fairy tale forest,” the gorgeous park is filled with incredibly scaled attractions that don’t just borrow from Disney flair, but add in uniquely ambitious twists of their own. Perhaps the park’s new signature attraction, Symbolica invites guests into the castle of King Pardulfus.
But then the court jester (and the park’s mascot), the whimsical Pardoes, interrupts the walking tour in one of the most spectacular practical effects we’ve seen: a splitting staircase opening a secret passage into the heart of the castle! There, guests choose one of three paths forward (the “Hero Tour,” “Music Tour,” or “Treasure Tour”) and board Fantasievaarders (“Fantasy Floats”) that glide through spectacular, epic scenes.
From the central Observatorium of the wizard Almar to the royal champagne stocks, every inch of Symbolica is hypnotizing. However, the most iconic must be the Botanicum, an otherworldly greenhouse that magically becomes an aquarium, ushering in one of the most imaginative moments in any modern dark ride.
Naturally, there are aspects of Symbolica that read as clear adaptations of scenes from a certain Disney trackless ride (appearing further on this list), but altogether, there’s simply no denying that the ride’s most impressive scenes are the ones that are original, anyway. That makes Symbolica an attraction that builds on Disney’s formula in a spectacularly showstopping way.
4. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt
Park: Tokyo Disneyland
Pooh’s Hunny Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland was the first of Disney’s trackless dark rides. And against all odds, it remains one of the best. That would be a surprise to most U.S. visitors since the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh dark rides in all but one Disney park aren’t exactly celebrated for their ambition. In fact, the other Pooh rides are traditionally simple Fantasyland-style dark rides through lightly-animated blacklight scenes in bumbling vehicles.
Tokyo’s ride, though, is in a class all its own… and is perhaps the E-Ticket anchor of the park. Seated in “hunny” pots, guests are whisked through the Hundred Acre Wood in nimble, darting motion. And even though Disney has installed quite a few LPS-based dark rides since, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt probably remains the best at showcasing the system’s seemingly random movements, offering multiple scenes in which the pots speed up, slow down, turn backwards, and spin around each other in perfect coordination.
The most spectacular scene must be Pooh’s hunny-induced fever dream of Heffalumps and Woozles, where multiple “batches” of vehicles interact in a dizzying (and collision-defying) dance… in fact, a vehicle with Heffalumps on board joins in the play, darting around and between riders! Pooh’s Hunny Hunt literally set the standard for LPS-based dark rides and created the idea of the chaotic interactions most fans picture of the ride system.
3. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Park: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
A product of Imagineering’s epic “Ride the Movies” era, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is often ranked among the pantheon of modern Imagineering masterpieces. The attraction invites guests into the haunted grounds of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, where a rogue lightning strike on Halloween night, 1939, caused a wing of the hotel (and its elevator) to flicker out of existence. It’s a story strange enough to star in its own episode of The Twilight Zone, which is why guests are welcomed aboard the hotel’s maintenance service elevator to relive the mysterious events first-hand.
But why does the ride make our list of trackless wonders? Simple. One of the most inexplicable and amazing features of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is its spine-tingling advance into the “Fifth Dimension.” Against all odds, the elevator physically moves out of the elevator shaft, advancing horizontally through a maintenance hallway, which promptly melts away to reveal the endless madness of the Twilight Zone itself.
For Imagineering fans, the Fifth Dimension scene can easily be taken for granted. But for first-timers, the sensation of your elevator suddenly exiting the elevator shaft is mind-blowing and unsettling. Even though adrenaline usually obscures it, a similar trackless moment occurs when the drops finally end, with the elevator pulling backwards into a dim basement before re-aligning for guests to exit. (The empty elevator then drives itself back to a show shaft to rise and pick up new riders, by the way.) Given that the ride runs on early ‘90s technology, the scene isn’t too fancy (controlled by embedded wires rather than Wifi or LPS) but it’s a sincerely astounding moment.
2. Mystic Manor
Park: Hong Kong Disneyland
When Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, it represented the third (and final) cheap-out product of the end of Michael Eisner’s penny-pinching era. The underbuilt park featured only one dark ride in its entire layout, and lacked many “must-haves” fans expect. No Pirates. No Peter Pan. No “small world.” No Big Thunder Mountain. No Haunted Mansion.
But a purposeful, all-at-once expansion added an unprecedented “outer ring” comprised of three lands outside of the park’s Railroad, including the original Mystic Point. The jungle mini-land is built around the home of the reclusive Lord Henry Mystic, international explorer extraordinaire and longtime member of S.E.A. Serving as a spiritual sequel to the Haunted Mansion, Mystic’s home is full of ancient treasures from around the globe… including a gem-encrusted music box said to grant life to the lifeless…
Luckily for us, the kindly Lord Mystic welcomes us to tour his collections aboard an elegant Victorian creation of his own: Mystic Magneto-Electric Carriages that glide through the home and into the Cataloguing and Acquisition Room, where the legendary music box awaits… Naturally, his inquisitive monkey Albert can’t help but disturb the music box, releasing the music and launching riders into the Modern Marvel: Mystic Manor – a must-read feature for all Imagineering fans.
Ready to see the best trackless dark ride on Earth? On the last page, we’ll declare our winner and see the upcoming trackless dark rides that just may change the industry again…
1. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Park: Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The new anchor E-Ticket of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Rise of the Resistance isn’t just the best trackless dark ride on Earth – it might be the best modern ride on Earth, period. The epic intergalactic journey makes use of no less than three separate ride systems during its runtime, famously blurring the line between queue and ride.
After their Resistance shuttle is abducted by the nefarious First Order, guests are sent for interrogation at the hands of the mysterious Kylo Ren… only for a last minute save to open a fleeting path forward. Guests board reprogrammed First Order prisoner transports in a last ditch effort to make it to an escape pod before the Star Destroyer they’re trapped on is wiped out by the Resistance.
What follows is an attraction so massively scaled, it’s unlike anything Disney (or anyone else) has ever attempted before. The ride melds the trackless technology, a few genuinely surprising twists, and just about every special effect mastered in Disney’s six-decade portfolio (including one of the best Audio-Animatronics on Earth) into one master class on the power of Imagineering.
TBD. Minnie & Mickey’s Runaway Railway
Park: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Since 1989, the unspoken “thesis” attraction of the Disney-MGM Studios had been the Lost Legend: The Great Movie Ride. Located in the park’s iconic Chinese Theater, the epic attraction toured guests through the greatest scenes in cinema history. When it was announced that the ride would be closed to make way for an attraction based on Disney Channel’s new Mickey Mouse shorts, fans debated the decision. Did a cartoon adventure make sense in the elegant Chinese Theater?
One thing we can most definitely agree on, though, is that Disney would’ve preferred to have the new Mickey ride open before Rise of the Resistance as a way to divert crowds away from Galaxy’s Edge. Allegedly, both rides share a nearly-identical ride system, which is why the same technical issues that plagued Rise (forcing it to open nearly a near after the rest of Galaxy’s Edge) also stalled the timeline on Runaway Railway. If that’s true, you can see why Disney opted to divert all its resources toward Star Wars, putting work on the Mickey ride on the backburner.
Still, we expect Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway to be a sleeper hit, instantly rocketing up fans’ must-see lists and becoming a sought-after ride at each Disney Resort. Luckily for Californians, the attraction is already slated for Disneyland’s Toontown in 2022.
TBD. Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast
Park: Tokyo Disneyland
The cultural dominance of Disney’s Renaissance in the ‘90s produced The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Pocahontas, and Mulan – stories that literally saved Disney and defined a generation. That’s what makes it so odd that – but for the Mermaid rides opened in 2012 – none have been the subject of their own dark rides.
That’ll change in a big way with the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, opening this year in Tokyo Disneyland’s expanded New Fantasyland. Enchanted Tale looks to be drawn from the same page as Rise of the Resistance, combining a gargantuan scale with staggering technologies (including animatronics so real, they look pulled off the screen) and… 10-person trackless teacups!
While we’ll have to wait a bit to find out all the details, this looks to be a continuation of the epic 21st century dark rides we’ve seen develop.
