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My Ideal Park: Part 1

 So a bit of something different but I thought it'd be fun if I designed my own theme park, and by design I mean just give a vague theme and what rides would be there. It will be split other 4 parts and try to explain in as much detail as I can what I would do and why and how it would work. I essentially picked rides I'd like to try and then picked out a few themes that I think would be cool to see. This is basically Planet Coaster sandbox mode without actually being able to play the game or have any exact visuals. This is aimed to be just a bit of fun and as a student I still have some optimism left for stuff like this. 


So in the first part, I wanted to explain the layout of the park, the entrance and the kids area. Not the most fun parts but good to set a picture and tick a few things off.


Layout

Right, so the main feature of the park is a large man made lake in the middle and the rest of the areas go around it, kinda like a circle. This lake will be hugs, with a fountain and lights show at nights too. It should be an amazing sight and be the centrepiece of this park. So the main entrance will lead down to this and then the 5 themed areas plus the kids area will be around this lake, all linking to the next via paths in order to keep as much immersion in each area as possible. A monorail will also run through the park with 6 stations, one at each themed area and one by the entrance in order to make travel easier across the park. There will also be a second entrance on the back side of the park for hotel guests, just to make their lives a little easier. 

Speaking of hotels, there will be 2 for guests. With the scale of the park it could be argued another one would be necessary but that seems audacious for our opening year. One will be similar to Boulevard and Pleasure Beach but the other will be space themed, mainly because I love the theme. 


Entrance

This has to be impressive, the first impression in life is crucial and I do not want guests to be underwhelmed or unhappy when they see my park for the first time. A big entrance sign for the park for guests to walk under and go through the turnstiles. As they walk in to dramatic music, something similar to Icon's, because I can not stop talking about why I love that ride. And then you're in, congratulations! A lovely area will be in front of you, similar to Towers Street or Main Street USA with shops, a restaurant, other food outlets, box office and guest information as well as a monorail station. It should be vibrant with stuff to do and see, I think that the best entrances I've seen are the ones that make me excited when I get in and want to explore and when the day ends, I take it in and reflect on a great day on park. 

The desired impact will not be to wow guests as there's no point wowing them and we should let the themed areas themselves do that but rather make them feel welcome and assure them it will be a great day. With all that being said, at the end of this street is going to be a permanent stage for shows, music and events. I've realised over the last season that entertainment is great in a park and its not all about rides, thus I'm making a conscious effort to have live entertainment for guests. 



Children's Area

I thought realistically this would need to be IP themed in order to have the biggest draw for families. I'm not well versed in children's entertainment to be able to pick out a certain one that would be loved however I chose one that I think is unique and is nostalgic to me so I'm going to say a Teletubbies themed area. No idea if you could make a whole area out of it but there wasn't much I could think of that was available. There would be a little dark ride, a junior coaster (A P'Sghetti Bowl by Skyline Attractions) and then some junior flat rides to complete the the area, some nice foliage and landscaping to make the area as nice as possible will result in a polished look and one that should be popular among our youngest of visitors.





Now the themed areas that will be covered in what I assure you is more detail than this initial overlook are: Space, Jungle, Middle Ages, Western and a Movie Studios area, these clearly won't link together and that is why they will be separated off and where possible hidden behind trees and buildings in order to retain that all important immersion. In the next part of the series the Space and Jungle themed areas will be covered with all the rides and amenities for the respective areas. The overall park name is Ember Dome Park, not sure how bad that sounds but it will do for me, imagine calling a park Pleasure Beach? Now that does not sound like a great name. 


As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you think of the park so far!

Take care and see you in the next post!

Tom ✌

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