It’s pretty difficult to choose a favorite from Sally’s catalogue of sensational dark rides… Some are oft-duplicated landmarks well-known to regional park enthusiasts. Others are unique and even obscure rides found only in unexpected places… But each of the rides highlighted below speak to Sally’s role in reviving the dark ride and making the medium accessible and approachable for regional park operators and their guests!
1. Ghost Blasters
The first Sally Dark Ride to be highlighted has to be the Ghost Blasters line of attractions. Beginning in 1999 at Lake Compounce (as “Ghost Hunt”), the Ghost Blasters model established so many of the tried-and-true standards of Sally Dark Rides (and really, modern, regional dark rides altogether): glowing, blacklight interiors of ultraviolet cutouts, snappy effects triggered by laser blasts, and the old school hiss of pneumatics that send 2D ghost cutouts rising from behind tombstones.
In 2000, then-Paramount’s Canada’s Wonderland unveiled a unique twist on the Ghost Blasters formula with Scooby-Doo’s Haunted Mansion, with Sally licensing the popular Hanna-Barbera animated character and integrating Scooby and the Mystery Inc. gang into an IP-friendly, in-house reimagining of the Ghost Blasters model.
Similar Scoob-ified dark rides were subsequently opened at Paramount’s Carowinds (2001), Kings Island (2003), and Kings Dominion (2004), plus Six Flags Fiesta Texas (2002) and Parque Warner Madrid (2006), with a unique boat-based Scooby overlay at Six Flags St. Louis (2002).
In 2008, Sally returned to their Ghost Blasters installation in Denver’s Elitch Gardens and crafted a new model they deemed Ghost Blasters II. Inserting a clear ghost-hunting frame story and a new “Big Bad” – the elusive Boocifer (above) – the Ghost Blasters II model also introduced mist screens, lighting effects, and other upgrades, becoming Sally’s new de facto haunted house model.
Luckily, that timed up nicely with the Paramount Parks’ sale to Cedar Fair. At Canada’s Wonderland, Carowinds, Kings Island, and Kings Dominion, Sally returned to its existing Scooby-Doo dark rides, “de-dogging” the four over the 2009 off-season in favor of Ghost Blasters II scenes and effects. The resulting set of rides – the curiously named “Boo Blasters on Boo Hill” – remain the only dark rides at each of those parks, and staples of a family visit.
Between the original Ghost Blasters, Scooby Doo’s Haunted Mansion variants, and the Ghost Blasters II model, no less than a dozen of Sally’s go-to interactive blacklight haunted houses can be found at amusement parks, boardwalks, malls, midways, and even zoos across the United States, Canada, Spain, and Sweden.
2. Nights in White Satin: The Trip
One of the most legendary attractions of all time, Nights in White Satin: The Trip was truly a multi-sensory, multi-media dark ride that existed for the single summer season that Myrtle Beach’s infamous Hard Rock Park was open to the public.
A psychedelic, mind-melding dark ride set to the 1967 song by The Moody Blues and ostensibly meant to recreate the experience of tripping on acid, Nights in White Satin was actually constructed inside of an abandoned mall that abutting the Hard Rock Park space. Within, guests encountered scents, spinning psychedelic images, smoke rings swirling around their heads, and a “speed room” with guests passing through surreal projected imagery.
Abstract, otherworldly, and even emotional, this dark ride showed Sally’s unbelievable ability to disassociate from physical sets. Instead, it was an elevated, surreal, brain-expanding experiment of which unfortunately little evidence remains. (The point-of-view video above is one of the best glimpses of the ride.)
Unfortunately, Hard Rock Park lasted just a single season. After its 2008 opening and closing, the property was purchased and re-opened in 2009 as the de-branded “Freestyle Music Park.” Most of the differences between the two were trivial ride renamings as a result of lost licensing. But Nights in White Satin was obliterated with the ride completely redesigned as the laughably-bad (and to be fair, clearly budget-cut and rushed) Monstars of Rock. (Sally was not involved in the retheme.) Anyway, Freestyle Music Park also only lasted a single season. The property is still rotting in plain sight with its coasters removed. Which means this Sally treasure is long gone.
3. El Laberinto del Minotauro
Most Disney fans know that the trajectory of the Disney dark ride changed forever with Pooh’s Hunny Hunt – the Tokyo Disneyland attraction that opened in 2000 and debuted cutting edge trackless dark ride technology. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt famously allows multiple vehicles to “interact,” traveling forward and backward, criss-crossing, and even taking different paths through scenes. What you might not know is that Sally was dabbling in the same experience the same year.
Opened in 2000 in the southeast of Spain right on the Tyrrhenian Sea, Terra Mítica is an ambitious 21st century park with areas themed to legendary realms like Greece, Egypt, Oceania, Rome, and the Mediterranean Islands. In its Greek land resides El Laberinto del Minotauro – the Minotaur’s Labyrinth. Developed by Sally (and using ETF dark ride technology), this trackless dark ride sends guests on trackless “chariots” armed with magical “crossbows” to set off into a world of creatures drawn from Greek myth.
However, the coolest thing about this trackless dark ride is one of its other groundbreaking, innovative features… At two points along the ride’s course, chariots can be preemptively “ejected” and sent to the unload area. Only those who score high enough can proceed past these forks in the road to end up in a face-to-face encounter with the legendary Minotaur. Trust us, it’s a full dark ride even if you don’t score a point… but for many, getting to the “bonus scenes” that culminate in a mirrored Minotaur chamber is a whole lot of fun.
Incredibly cutting edge for its time (and still very impressive today), El Laberinto del Minotauro shows that – although many U.S. park operators opt for Sally’s simpler, classic, blacklight cutout dark rides – the firm is capable of incredible scenic design, animatronics, environmental spaces, and storytelling.
And that brings us to Sally’s spectacular new age creations…