10 SURREAL STRANGE Dark Rides You NEVER SAW

10 SURREAL STRANGE Dark Rides You NEVER SAW

– [Narrator] This video contains
flashing lights and colors. (upbeat music) Well, the holiday season
is upon us once again. In a few weeks, you may very well be stuffing
yourself at the table, but before that happens,
how about a few dark rides for an appetizer? Yep, just like in the summer, we’re revisiting the
wonderful world of dark rides. And I think I found 10
more memorable ones. I really don’t think I’m gonna run out of these anytime soon. The best word I’d use to describe all of these dark rides is surreal. Some of them weird, and
some of them just trippy. One of these dark rides
is a complete disaster. But we’ll get to that one towards the end. Also, if you stick around to the end, you’ll get a special bonus clip of me exploring an abandoned high school, and finding an animatronic there. Now, one more thing before we get started. I want to give a big shout
out to the Dark Ride Database once again for allowing
me to use their footage for this video. Once again, they have an excellent website that pretty much documents
every single dark ride on Earth. Plus, if you wanna binge
watch “Dark Rides,” their YouTube channel is
a great spot to do that. I will link both in the description, so you can go ahead and subscribe to them. Now then, let’s get started
with the dark rides. Number 10 is, and this is a long name, Miniwah & Das Geheimnis
von Gold Creek City at Germany’s Freizeitpark Plohn. This translates to English as, “Miniwah and the Secret
of Gold Creek City.” Now, this is one of those
rare coaster dark ride hybrids that you don’t see that many of. Reason being is that dark
rides are all about atmosphere, and taking in the scenes, whereas rollercoasters are more focused on fast-paced thrills and
enhanced physical sensations. But there are a few attractions out there that combine the two, including this one. Now, looking at this POV, you may think that it
takes place at night. But actually, it’s completely indoors. In all honesty, this kind of reminds me of the old Wild West segment
from The Great Movie Ride. This, however, is a powered rollercoaster. In this coaster design, the train picks up electricity
from contacts in the rails to power a motor on board. This powers it through the entire layout with little use for gravity. Powered coasters commonly
have short layouts, and will often make several
circuits through them. For Miniwah, guests navigate the full
course three times in a row. Now the course itself has some
pretty interesting scenery, including a forest with wild animals, a dentist pulling out someone’s teeth, and oh look, a sub-mechano-phobic moose with two Indigenous
children riding his antlers. The sets are pretty cool, but you don’t really have
time to look at them, as the coaster just zooms by them. Interestingly enough, each circuit is faster than the others, so you just zoom past the scenery at an increasing speed with each lap. That alone is pretty odd. Imagine going through the Haunted Mansion three times in a row, with
each time getting faster. ♪ When the crypt goes creak
and the tombstones quake ♪ ♪ When the crypt goes creak
and the tombstones quake ♪ ♪ When the crypt goes creak
and the tombstones quake ♪ Even stranger, after the first circuit, the lights start flashing, making it even harder to see the scenes. It’s rides like this, why I
have a photosensitivity warning at the beginning of many of my videos. In all honesty, it does
look like a thrilling, and very well-themed
rollercoaster for families. But of course, it’s only
number 10 on this list, so things are gonna get a
lot stranger as we move on. Number nine is Cosmicar
at Monte Igueldo in Spain. Now, Monte Iguelda alone
is a pretty surreal park. It has an old steel rollercoaster
built on a concrete wall. And its attractions give perhaps some of the best views in the world, overlooking the Bay of La Concha, and the island of Santa Clara. Amidst its mountainside attractions is a dark ride located
between the bumper cars and a parking area. This dark ride, themed to
space, is called Cosmicar. Guest board small
rocket-themed ride vehicles, and after pushing a
curtain out of the way, they’re met with a rocket and
fluorescent stars and moons. It looks like a life-sized version of an elementary school craft
project, in the best way. There’s also this robot that kind of looks like
a multicolored version of the Cuban flag. After this area, you enter a room that resembles what appears to be a planet
with multicolored volcanoes. In another POV though, the
volcanoes were all red, and there was some kind of
light effect on the wall, so maybe it changes for every ride. On the side, you’ll see what
looks like a modified X-wing, and eventually pass under
a long-legged alien robot. Next, you’ll enter an area
full of bright red cliffs and an astronaut just floating through. Perhaps this is supposed to be Mars, but then for no reason at all, you suddenly enter what looks
to be the inside of a boat with vines on the walls
and three lanterns. Then there’s a cold-looking
cryochamber type area, more metal-looking walls with lights, and then I guess you’re
inside of an asteroid. I don’t know how else to describe it. Then the ride just ends. It’s definitely one of those
visual-based experiences that’s hard to explain in words. Me personally, I put my earphones in, and play “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Now that would be a fitting song. Now for the number eight spot. Like with my last “Dark Rides” video, we’re heading to the
world of Sesame Street, This time in Spain. At the famous PortAventura, there’s a Sesame Street dark ride called Sesame Street: Street Mission. This, of course, is made by the fine folks
at Sally Dark Rides, along with the help of Jim
Henson’s Creature Shop. Now, in our last “Dark Ride” video, we talked about Sesame
Street’s Spaghetti Space Chase. That ride involved in aliens
dealing the world’s pasta. Weirdly enough, this
ride is also food-themed, as guests help Detective
Grover solve a mystery where the world’s biggest
cookie has gone missing. Now, if you wanna nitpick, you could point out that
the world’s biggest cookie was 102 feet wide, and 40,000 pounds, so it’s highly unlikely anyone would be able to steal it so easy. But you know what? This is Sesame Street,
not a true crime channel. Now, first things first. You gotta give credit
to these animatronics. They’re perfect. I actually saw one of them at
the 2018 IAAPA Expo up close. And they truly bring
these characters to life in the best way. So you’ve really gotta
give Sally credit on these. As for the ride’s premise,
it’s a shooting dark ride, and here’s the strange part. You actually shoot cookie
crumbs to earn points. You see, the cookie crumbs
are supposed to be clues to find the big cookie. Each crumb is worth points. And you can also get points by clicking and interacting with
other items on the screen. Likely to avoid resembling weapons, the laser guns are actually shaped more like remote controls than pistols. Spoiler alert, at the end, it’s revealed that the person
who stole the big cookie was Cookie Monster. If you think that sounds
predictable and anticlimactic, you’re clearly taking a Sesame Street ride way too seriously. Even though this ride has
a big focus on screens, it’s honestly pretty cool. The way it blends the screens
and the animatronics together, along with implementing
an interactive video game, makes it worth riding, for sure,
no matter what age you are. Number seven is an interesting case that manages to be both insanely weird, and insanely adorable. And that’s Madame
Freudenreich’s Curiosities at Germany’s Europa Park. Now, most likely, you’ve
heard of Europa Park before. But not too many people
talk about its dark rides. Honestly though, this one is
absolutely worth discussing, as it’s both a psychedelic experience and a wholesome family attraction. Located in the French area of the park, and in the basement of the
Eurosat CanCan coaster, this ride tells the
story of an elderly woman who collects various
things, including dinosaurs. But unlike the soon-to-be
defunct Disney attraction, these dinosaurs are friendly. All they really wanna do
is chill out and eat cake. This ride has several
dinosaur animatronics, all of which are unique and charming. What’s more, some of them even blink, which actually does a lot
to breathe life into them. It really is amazing what
one simple motion can do to enhance an animatronic. There are plenty of
dinosaurs on this ride. There’s a Stegosaurus under the laundry, a Parasaurolophus beekeeping, a Brachiosaurus with a
giant scarf, and many more. This kitchen scene has small
dinos playing in the sink, with one of them in the refrigerator, and another one hanging out in the oven. By the end, all the dinosaurs
gathered together for a party. And although this particular dinosaur is a bit creepy to look at, the whole scene is once
again, very endearing. At the very end, Madame Freudenreich herself
makes an appearance, sending you off with an auf Wiedersehen. I feel like if this ride was at Disney, a lot more people would
be talking about it, but it really is on their level. As bizarre as the concept
is, it’s done perfectly. And if you visit Europa Park,
don’t forget to check it out. For number six, we’re staying in Germany with Drachen Magic at Ritter Rost. This ride is definitely surreal, but it’s also flat out adorable, and pretty damn creative too. So what the park did was take an old barn that used to be used as
a storage area for them, and convert the building into
a dark ride based on dragons. So here’s the basic story. The park’s mascot, a wizard named Fabulus, spelled without an O, decided to take a giant
dragon egg home with him. Eventually he found more eggs,
and also brought them home, basically turning his barn
into a dragon daycare. Eventually he decides to
enchant a bunch of sofas so that guests can hop on board, and see the dragons in his barn. If you love dragons, this
ride has no shortage of them, and they’re pretty much
around every corner. There’s one coming out of
the wall, one eating hay, and one flashing his high beams at you like a jackass on Route Eight. There’s also one who seems to have tangled himself up
in the Christmas lights, which is just flat out adorable. Towards the end, you could see Fabulus having tea with a dragon. And for some reason, they just shake their heads
at you disapprovingly. At the end, you come into a dark room with a bunch of glowing
eyes, and then disco party. No kidding, there’s actually
a disco ball overhead. For some reason, right after this scene, there’s a little miniature clown doll just hanging against the wall. This is a strange ride for sure, but it’s also uniquely charming. A big part of this ride’s
charm was the park’s decision to keep the wooden structure of the building’s roof in plain sight, according to the Dark Ride Database. Moreover, about 95% of this
ride was built in-house, story and all. And there’s an excellent interview on the Dark Ride Database’s website that I will link down below. In one part of the
interview, the park CEO, Bastian Lampe said the following. “We really put a lot of details
and references in the ride. Take the first scene, for
example, with the mice. When you count, you will notice
21 mice holes in that scene. That symbolizes the 21 people
who worked on the ride.” He also added, “You’ll
find another reference when you study the names of the dragons. They’re called Werner, Franz
and Anton, for example. All names of people from the
German theme park industry that are included in
the IAAPA Hall of Fame.” These reference coaster
designer, Werner Stengel, Europa Park founder, Franz Mack, and coaster legend Anton
Schwarzkopf, or Schwarzkopf, depending on how you
prefer to pronounce it. It’s obvious that a ton of effort was put into this attraction, and if you ever find yourself in Germany, I highly recommend giving it a ride. Across the German border,
we have number five, Knights Ride Tower at
Austria’s Fantasiana. This is a super rare example
of a vertical dark ride. As in a dark ride where
you don’t move horizontally to go through the scenes, but vertically. Yes, up a tower. This free fall tower was
built by Swiss manufacturer, ABC Rides. The ride concept is known
as a free fall tower, and a vertical dark ride, which is exactly what it sounds like. After entering the queue and checking out an excellently
detailed dragon animatronic, you board a 10-seat ride vehicle, and are lifted upwards
towards the first scene. Here, you’ll encounter a
sleeping dragon and a crocodile, along with a few scattered spiders. And in the background, there’s a projection of a
knight riding on his horse. One floor up, and there’s a satyr playing on his flute, while a bunch of other spiders
are in the room with him. Man, that satyr has balls to be in a room with that many spiders. Next up, you’ll see the same
dragon from the queue area, along with two sleeping
dragons in the background on the projection. Once again, there are a
bunch of spiders in the room. Oh, and there’s a snake in the room too. And you just gotta love
how one of the dragons decides to attack you, and then immediately goes back to sleep. In the final scene, you
finally see the knight and his horse, along with
a gryphon on his right. And it’s at this moment
that you drop 20 meters, or about 66 feet. Immediately after this drop, you’ll see one of the
severed talons of the gryphon in the floor, which hints that the knight was successfully able to defeat him. Now here’s the really
interesting part about this ride. Do you remember on how
It’s Tough to Be a Bug, there is a hole in the back of your seat to allow a piston with a rubber
nub to poke you in the back when the wasps are supposed to sting you? And do you remember how on Shrek 4D, there were leg ticklers under the seat to simulate spiders
running underneath you? Well, this ride has both
back pokers and leg ticklers. The leg ticklers simulate
all the spiders you see, and the back poker activates
when the gryphon shows up, simulating the talons
sinking into your back. You could very well call
this a 4D dark ride, drop tower experience. That’s definitely a mouthful. But it’s a unique attraction nonetheless. It’s not the only vertical
dark ride out there, but it’s definitely a memorable one. Another vertical drop ride is Thaolon at Germany’s Bayern Park,
coming in at number four. This time it’s not made
by ABC Rides, but rather, German manufacturer, Zierer. This ride model, known as
a family free fall tower, is ordinarily a tame drop tower meant for younger thrill-seekers. But as it turns out, someone decided to turn
it into a dark ride. Now the regular version of this ride bounces up and down, along with rotating. The story of the ride
centers on a group of dwarves working in a mine. In each scene, they’re
doing separate tasks. There’s also apparently
a wine or whiskey cellar, where one of the dwarves
is passed out drunk. It’s cool that we have these photos on the Dark Ride Database,
because otherwise, the ride videos make it pretty hard to make out what’s going on. That’s because the ride
is always rotating, and bouncing up and down, so it’s kind of hard to
see the scenes on camera. But still, the fact that
you’re so close to these scenes makes the ride feel faster
than it actually is. And what’s ordinarily a
tame family attraction was definitely upgraded with the addition of animatronics and scenery. Although there’s not a whole
lot else I can say about it, it definitely is worthy of
this spot on the list, or not. Really, it’s all subjective. Now we head from the
dwarf mines of Germany to the circuses of Poland. Number three on the list is
Cyrk Luna at Poland’s Rabkoland. Located about an hour
from the city of Krakow, Rabkoland is a small Polish park you probably haven’t heard of. But its circus dark ride
is certainly strange. In fact, the Dark Ride Database themselves actually recommended it to me when I asked about
recommendations for this video. So this dark ride is supposed
to take place in a circus, but here’s the thing;
some of the visuals are just odd. Why is there a giraffe
in a Liberace outfit serving me salad? Why is there a walrus with no
tusks, a tie and a bowler hat? Why do the elephants
look like Raven Baxter after eating mushrooms? Why does that pipe organ monkey
look like he’s seen things? And who are these guys? And why are they standing behind a corner so that you have to turn
around to look at them? This whole dark ride is more
confusing than it needs to be. And considering the two other dark rides I rode in Poland are also confusing, it must be par for the
course for dark rides there. Now we’ve come to a
really weird dark ride. And this one is back in Austria at the classic Wiener Prater. More specifically, a dark ride called Alt Wiener Grottenbahn, or Old Vienna Grotto Railway in English. I feel like I’ve talked
about a bunch of rides at Wiener Prater on this channel before. But why stop now? The best way to describe this ride is that it’s simply all over the place. For the most part, the course consists of
several window dioramas, each representing a
different famous story. You also have various stories in bigger scenes with animatronics. Like this extremely creepy
one of Hansel and Gretel. Look at those faces! And why is there a cockroach
playing an accordion? Is this Hansel and Gretel? Or is it another story
that I never heard of? Up next, there’s a “Little
Red Riding Hood” scene. The confusing part is that
there’s a wolf on the bed disguised as grandma, but there’s another wolf
sleeping on the floor. So which one is which? Is
her grandma literally a wolf? Then you have this scene,
which I honestly have no idea what it’s supposed to represent. Let’s see, there’s a demon
with red hair eating a fish. There’s a caveman-looking
demon roasting a pig. There’s a very offensive caricature of an Indigenous person in the background. And then there’s two
snakes, parrots, and okay, if anybody can explain to
me what’s going on here, I would really appreciate it. More scenes follow this. And
again, there is no music. Let’s see, we have Snow White, who’s not at Shrek’s table this time. We’ve got “The Little Mermaid.” And of course, the classic
fairytale “Frozen,” with Olaf looking like Sven
is about to eat him alive. And of course there are even
more unsettling characters, Wait a second, is that
the cast of “South Park?” Apparently, this ride was
built all the way back in 1951, although it has been repeatedly
refurbished over the years. Honestly, I’d love to learn
more about this ride’s history. And now we’ve come to number one. In this ride, it’s surreal just
how completely awful it is. And I mean awful in a hilarious way. This is up there with Terminus. In fact, you might be able to say that this is worse than Terminus. Because at least Terminus had the excuse of being a cheap fair ride. This dark ride, on the other hand, was part of a multimillion
dollar Dubai theme park based on the history and legacy of the Real Madrid
Football Club, or soccer, as us uncultured Americans would call it. Apparently this used to
be Bollywood Parks Dubai. But just last year, it was redeveloped and re-themed to Real Madrid World. For coaster enthusiasts,
it’s most well-known for having the Bombay Express coaster, which has since been renamed
and re-themed to Hala Madrid. This ride apparently has
more discrete airtime moments than any other roller coaster, according to designers,
Skyline Attractions. But if this park has the
coaster with the most airtime, they also have the dark
ride with the most cringe. Thanks to YouTube user uwurawrus, we have some rare footage
that’s hardly ever been seen, so most people don’t even
know this dark ride exists. But trust me, you should,
for all the wrong reasons. Say hello to number one,
Unstoppables: The Universe Cup. Now, according to early
marketing materials, this was supposed to be
a shooting dark ride, where you took aim and shot
at targets to earn points. All right, so I did some more research, and it turns out that this ride used to be called Sholay:
The Hunt for Gabbar Singh, and it was based on the 1975
Bollywood movie “Sholay.” It used to be a shooting
dark ride, but as you’ll see, that changed, to say the least, once the park was re-themed
from Bollywood to Real Madrid. Somewhere in the process, it was decided to just
drop the game altogether. Yes, no targets, no laser guns, nothing. So what do you do instead? Well, there’s a couple of scenes of some really awkward deliveries setting up exposition for
some intergalactic soccer, football game, whatever you wanna call it. And this delivery has to be some of the
worst I’ve ever heard. – [Speaker] You are about
to arrive at the entrance of the Scorpio constellation. It is very important
for you to know that… – [Narrator] It’s important
for you to know that what? You said it, not me. Why don’t you (beep) tell
me what is so important that you had to bring it up? Well, apparently it
can’t be that important, because you decided to cut yourself off, and not even finish your (beep) sentence. I’m just playing, everyone. I should bring up that most
likely that sentence was cut off because the evil aliens
supposedly hijacked your ship. And if that’s the case, it’s
still awkward, I’m sorry. Who is this alien? And why is
he looking at me like that? Seriously, this moment is so awkward that even the original uploader
started laughing at it. (upbeat music)
(rider laughing) And you just gotta love
how the movies on screen just suddenly stop awkwardly. After you see another
random clip of aliens, you have this next scene, where
the audio suddenly cuts in. – [Speaker] Hello? Can you hear me? Listen carefully. You have been hijacked by galactic pirates who are trying to keep you from the match. But all is not lost. We have a chance. The Universe Cup organizers
are activating a stargate that will transport you
directly to the stadium. Hold on tight. Three, two, one, go! (upbeat music)
(rider laughing) – [Narrator] Now, who are
these random alien pirates who wanna keep you from
watching a soccer game? So then you’re supposed
to arrive at the stadium. But the clip is halfway finished, so it suddenly loops while
you’re in front of it. Then you finally arrive at the game between the who cares and the whatevers. (rider laughing) – [Speaker] I knew I could count on you! The game is very tight. But with you here, nothing is impossible! Cheer with all your strength.
Real Madrid, and nothing else! (rider laughing) – [Narrator] Yep, instead
of shooting targets, or doing something fun, the ride just expects you
to sit there like an idiot and cheer this made-up
team that you just met. And hooray, they won! Whoopdy (beep) do! And the end of the ride
is just you sitting there and watching them celebrate. As the original uploader put it, – [Rider] That might be the
worst dark ride I’ve ever done. – [Speaker 1] Yeah, this
is the worst ride here. (rider laughing)
– [Narrator] Indeed. I really don’t think I’ve seen
a dark ride worse than this. I really don’t. Terminus at least had the excuse of being an old fair attraction. It was old, it was cheap. But this, someone spent
millions of dollars on this. And from what I’ve heard, the park is a financial disaster too. Whoever designed this has clearly never designed
a dark ride before. Either that, or they’re
a very talented person whose work was handed off to people who had no idea what they were doing. To put it simply, there was
no excuse for this ride, and there never will be. With all that said, let’s get onto something
that doesn’t suck. The bonus clip of the animatronic I found in an abandoned high school. Now, I had clearance to be here, because my dad was there
working on a radiator, and he wanted me to help him out. But this area is off-limits
to the general public, so don’t try to sneak in here. With that said, here’s the clip. Okay, so I’m authorized to be here, but I am in basically
an abandoned top floor of the Seymour Community Center. Look at this. This is so cool. It’s just like a horror movie, or one of those creepy
urban exploration videos. Look at the holes in the walls! And the tiles are all
cracked. Look at this. This is actually where my
grandmother went to high school. Not college. Oh, look at the old door
numbers. Oh, my God. You can almost hear
the ghosts of children. I know, that’s morbid. My God. It’s an abandoned classroom
with a chalkboard. (footsteps thudding) But all these tiles, they’re so, I don’t even know when these
tiles were first installed. Another classroom. And here is the reason
I’m taking this video. I have no idea what this animatronic is. I definitely know it’s an
animatronic though. Look at this. It’s just a random animatronic
in this abandoned classroom. That is so cool. He’s got his firetruck. Look
at those classic FNAF eyes. His name is Sparky, apparently. I don’t know anything
about this animatronic. If anyone could figure out
that, I’d love to know. Comes with an audio cassette tape there. Definitely some lights up there. Oh, there’s a license plate. I love, I heart kids. (floorboards creaking)
(loud crashing) It had, wish, oh! I think my dad dropped something. That’d be so cool if it was
just something that fell, and it was one of those
urban exploration videos, and like this place was actually haunted. But if it was at night, I
wouldn’t be able to see anything. That’s so awesome. Now it’s time for the
comment shout-out program. This is where I take five random comments from my previous video and read them out. These comments come from
my “Alien Encounter” video. IAmAnAnne says, “The
restraints were uncomfortable. The trick was to extend your
body up during calibration so that when you relaxed, it
was touching your shoulders, but only just then you got the effect without feeling surprised.” Sauce-rt7fb says, “This
ride was just awesome.” Patricktheweatherman says,
“This video is very cool.” Thank you, Patrick. Zippyelly says, “I adored this ride when
it was still around. It just wasn’t the same when
it got the Stitch reskin.” And herpoppunkways says, “It can never be as scary
as the Snow White ride. But I do wish I was
able to experience it.” If you wanna see your
words in my next video, leave a comment down below,
and it may be selected. Please note though that
inflammatory or spam comments will not be read. Thank you all so much. And if you wanna support me on Patreon, you can do so once again at
the link in the description. Thanks for watching, everyone. Feel free to like, share and subscribe. You can follow me on social media, on Instagram and Facebook, or you could check out my
website, themeparkcrazy.com. And I’m on TikTok. This is Theme Park Crazy, and
I’ll see you all next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues)

The holiday season is almost here—but before you dig into dinner, let’s dig into dark rides! Germany, Spain, Dubai, and more. We’re diving into 10 more bizarre, creative, and downright weird attractions that range from adorable to disastrous. You’ll see everything: dragon daycares, cookie-finding detectives, and one of the most god-awful dark rides ever made. Plus, stick around for a special bonus clip of me finding an animatronic inside an abandoned high school!

Subscribe to Dark Ride Database on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UC-XhsxMk0LRWggmOEHQwHFA

Featuring footage courtesy of: Dark Ride Database: https://www.darkridedatabase.com

Check out uwurawrus’ video of the worst dark ride ever here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvtFtbrejUs&lc=UgxZHh9T1Oqy7u4bo6l4AaABAg.APDGZ0nQjDpAPJXB0Se9ge

All links to footage:

Other strange Polish dark rides:

Music:

Absum by NCTRNM
Wine & Spirits (Instrumental Version) – Xavy Rusan
Rec Center (Instrumental Version) – Xavy Rusan
The Legends (Instrumental Version) – Xavy Rusan
Vanilla Bean (Instrumental Version) – Xavy Rusan
Facilitate (Instrumental Version) – Xavy Rusan

0:00 Intro
1:20 Miniwah
3:29 Cosmicar
5:24 Sesame Street Street Mission
7:23 Madame Freudenteich
9:10 Drachen Magic
11:48 Knights Ride Tower
14:10 Thaolon
15:23 Cyrk Luna
16:26 Alt Wiener Grottenbahn
18:21 Unstoppables: The Universe Cup
23:48 Bonus Clip
26:29 Outro