About a month ago we reported on the “10Best Reader’s Choice Awards” and the results are now in! Several Dark Rides got a nomination, including Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Primordial, Whispering Pines Haunted Hotel and Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. And now that the results are in the dark rides are still a large part of the top10’s!
In the category of Best New Attraction, we’re happy to see that Treasure Hunt: The Ride by Daniels Wood Land and Sally Dark Rides, using interactive systems by Alterface took third place and LEGO Discovery Center Washington, D.C. took eighth. This is great to see as normally dark rides are relegated to theme parks, but to have two of the top 10 choices be for stand alone attractions with dark rides at their center is great news for the future of seeing them flourish elsewhere. We actually took a trip to experience Treasure Hunt: The Ride for ourselves you can read about here, so it’s certainly no surprise for it to be voted so high. Congratulations to Sally Dark Rides and Daniels Wood Land for this great accomplishment And while there are already a few Legoland Discovery Centers located in the United States, it’s always nice to allow more people to experience the great things it has to offer including the Imagination Express dark ride, using an ETF Ride Systems trackless multi-mover and interactive elements by Alterface.
The category of Best New Theme Park Attraction also has a couple of dark ride winners with Primordial winning first place and Whispering Pines Haunted Hotel taking sixth. There have many great theme park attractions opening last year, so it’s great to see a couple dark rides make the list, with the Triotech’s and Art Engineering‘s hybrid coaster/interactive dark ride, Primordial, taking the number one spot. And Sally Dark Rides, is also really taking home a prize with their second attraction this year winning an award.
Lauren Wood Weaver, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Sally Dark Rides said the following on lifthillsandthrills:
“WE ARE THRILLED THE READERS OF USA TODAY, AND THEME PARK FANS AROUND THE COUNTRY, LOVE OUR DARK RIDES AS MUCH AS WE DO.
2023 WAS A BIG YEAR FOR SALLY DARK RIDES, AND OUR ENTIRE INDUSTRY. TO SEE OUR DARK RIDES MAKE THE FINAL TOP TEN ON THESE TWO “BEST ATTRACTIONS” LISTS SHOWS THAT FAMILIES FROM COAST TO COAST RESPONDED TO OUR CREATIVITY AND WORK. WE PROUDLY SHARE THIS IS HONOR WITH OUR INCREDIBLE PARTNERS AT FUNTOWN SPLASHTOWN AND DANIELS WOOD LAND.”
We would like to congratulate the winners as well as all of the other nominees for making some outstanding attractions that will be enjoyed by thousands for years to come. We’re also excited for all the new attractions that will be opening this year, that you can read about here.
