The best theme park attractions blend story with thrills to create unique entertainment. Any park can roll out a new roller coaster or carnival ride. The best parks use ride systems as platforms for immersive storytelling.
That is the formula that has helped Disney and Universal to dominate the theme park business in the United States. Both companies are helped, of course, by having access to massive archives of intellectual property — stories ready to be adapted to the world of theme parks. But some of Disney’s biggest theme park successes have come from original stories.
Telling original stories does not require Hollywood connections or big licensing budgets — just the hard work and talent to put together an engaging narrative in a convincing setting. That high barrier keeps many parks going back to off-the-shelf thrill rides. So I always am grateful when a park takes a chance on original storytelling.
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The latest comes from Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo., which last week opened its new Fire In The Hole. Occupying a five-story show building behind the park’s Fire District land, the new Fire In The Hole is the first indoor roller coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction, the acclaimed U.S. coaster manufacturer known best to California theme park fans for Twisted Colossus and Wonder Woman Flight of Courage at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
The new ride is more dark ride than roller coaster, however, telling a story inspired by local history in the Ozarks. The Bald Knobbers gang has attacked a small town, and it’s up to the residents to fight back and save their homes. The new Fire In The Hole replaces a 50-year-old ride of the same name in the park, adding modern theatrical effects and a smoother ride system to enhance the story.
Silver Dollar City also went all-in on story with its last major addition, Mystic River Falls. The park framed that rapids ride with a backstory about the discovery of the river that flows through Silver Dollar City’s Marvel Cave, an actual 30-mile cavern that lies underneath the theme park.
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To win customers’ enduring loyalty, it is essential that businesses do the unnecessary. Deliver more than the minimum. Silver Dollar City does this with engaging stories in a well-decorated park, staffed by friendly and attentive employees.
My favorite detail in the park is its broadsheet newspaper — chronicling the day’s schedule and handed out free to visitors as they enter. It warmed my journalist’s heart to see a street filled with people reading newspapers when I walked into Silver Dollar City.
If the new Six Flags for whatever reason is not able to hold on to both Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm, Silver Dollar City owner Herschend Family Entertainment would provide an excellent custodian for Knott’s. With its Ghost Town setting, Knott’s Berry Farm always felt like an outlier in Cedar Fair’s lineup. But Knott’s feels like a natural sibling for Silver Dollar City and Herschend’s Dollywood — well-themed parks that consistently challenge Disney and Universal with outstanding storytelling and customer service.
