Boo Blasters on Boo Hill is an interactive family
dark ride designed and manufactured by
Sally Corporation
Sally Corporation is a dark ride and animatronic manufacturing company based in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. The company serves amusement parks, attractions, museums, and retail clients worldwide. It offers complete design/build service ...
. The ride is located at four
Cedar Fair amusement parks —
Canada's Wonderland,
Carowinds
Carowinds is a amusement park located adjacent to Interstate 77 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, with a portion of the park located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. However, it has an of ...
,
Kings Dominion, and
Kings Island
Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...
. The ride was previously themed to
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
's ''
Scooby-Doo'', but Cedar Fair rebranded the rides shortly after purchasing the parks from Paramount.
Each ride's new theme debuted in 2010 at all four parks.
History
In 2006,
Cedar Fair purchased
Paramount Parks
Paramount Parks was the operator of Paramount's Kings Island, Paramount's Kings Dominion, Paramount's Great America, Paramount's Carowinds, and Paramount Canada's Wonderland, which annually attracted about 13 million patrons. National Amuseme ...
from
CBS.
Several of the parks attained in the purchase –
Canada's Wonderland,
Carowinds
Carowinds is a amusement park located adjacent to Interstate 77 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, with a portion of the park located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. However, it has an of ...
,
Kings Dominion, and
Kings Island
Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...
– had a dark ride from Sally Corporation themed to the company's
Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion
Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion is a Scooby-Doo-themed interactive dark ride series created by Sally Corporation based on Hanna-Barbera's long-running animated television series. The ride transports guests in a vehicle equipped with light guns tha ...
attraction model.
During the 2009-2010 off-season, Cedar Fair began the process of removing
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
and
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
themes from their recently acquired amusement parks.
For the Haunted Mansion rides, Sally Corporation was contracted to remove the Scooby-Doo theme and replace it with a new one.
The new theme was called Boo Blasters on Boo Hill, which debuted at all four parks for the 2010 season.
Ride experience
Boo Blasters on Boo Hill is a dark ride with individual ride vehicles on a track at
Canada's Wonderland,
Carowinds
Carowinds is a amusement park located adjacent to Interstate 77 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, with a portion of the park located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. However, it has an of ...
, and
Kings Dominion, and a continuous
Omnimover-style ride system at
Kings Island
Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...
. Guests use mounted laser guns to fire at lighted targets throughout the ride. Hitting a target enables additional animation, sounds, and special effects, as well as earns each rider points that are tallied and displayed inside the vehicle.
The ride layout and special effects varies at each park location. Initially, each park sold disposable
ChromaDepth
Chromadepth is a patented system from the company Chromatek (a subsidiary of American Paper Optics since 2002) that produces a stereoscopic effect based upon differences in the diffraction of color through a special prism-like holographic film f ...
3-D glasses at the ride's entrance to enhance the
blacklight paint
Black light paint or black light fluorescent paint is luminous paint that glows under a black light. It is based on pigments that respond to light in the ultraviolet segment of the electromagnetic spectrum. The paint may or may not be colorful u ...
effects throughout the ride.
Kings Island
Guests enter the attraction through the front gates of an old Gothic castle. The queue takes guests through the foyer into the first room, which features large chandeliers, cob webs, and a
haunting
The list of reportedly haunted locations throughout the world, that are locations said to be haunted by ghosts or other supernatural beings, including demons. Reports of haunted locations are part of ghostlore, which is a form of folklore.
Ar ...
music track playing in the background. Before boarding the ride, guests walk through a corridor with boarded-up windows on both sides. Once in the vehicle, riders travel through a haunted cemetery and mansion, filled with skeletons and ghosts. The final encounter is with Boocifer, the primary antagonist. The ride ends with a display that shows riders how well their score ranks before exiting the vehicle.
Although Kings Island's version of Boo Blasters was previously Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle, the ride system was originally used for Phantom Theater. Phantom Theater maintained the same ride system as its successors, but featured 55 ride vehicles and no interactive elements. The attraction ceased operation in 2002 and became transformed into Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle for the 2003 season.
References
External links
Boo Blasters on Boo Hill at Canada's WonderlandBoo Blasters on Boo Hill at CarowindsBoo Blasters on Boo Hill at Kings DominionBoo Blasters on Boo Hill at Kings Island
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boo Blasters On Boo Hill
Scooby-Doo in amusement parks
Amusement rides introduced in 2010
Animatronic attractions
Amusement rides manufactured by Sally Corporation
Cedar Fair attractions
Dark rides
Sally Corporation animatronics