Opinion: Marketing every new theme park attraction as a ‘world first’
A trend has emerged within the themed entertainment industry: when announcing a new theme park attraction, its parent companies often describe the ride as the “world’s first” this or “world’s fastest” that, using language that comes across as both comical and confusing.
World’s First-Ever Simultaneously Confusing Yet Comical Trend for a New Theme Park Attraction
Have you noticed this trend? Parks under the operation of Disney, Universal, Cedar Fair, SeaWorld, and other companies all share in common this phenomenon of linguistics.
Image courtesy of Ardent Leisure
We’ll dive into some examples, but in the spirit of this subject matter, we are proud to present this story as the world’s first-ever article about amusement park trends written by someone who has scalloped potatoes in the oven on a Tuesday in November.
Image courtesy of Village Roadshow Theme Parks
Theme Park Attraction Trend: “World’s First”
In promoting new attractions, sometimes companies take pride in having created something new. As they should! It’s exciting when artists innovate within the theme park industry, and guests are likely enticed by the idea of experiencing something that’s never been built before. The park is the first to create the innovation; therefore the guest can be among the first to be part of a seemingly historic moment in time. Win-win.
For example, SeaWorld San Antonio will open Catapult Falls in 2024, which the park describes as “the world’s first launched flume coaster.”
Image courtesy of SeaWorld Parks
This description is both simple for the guest to understand, and beneficial to the attraction’s advertising campaign. While not everyone may know right away what a “launched flume coaster” is, if they think about it for a moment, they can perhaps grasp the concept. It’s a roller coaster, that likely involves a log flume, that includes some sort of launch element. Got it. I understand, and I want to ride! On the flip side of this, though . . .
Cracking the Code of Park Attraction Phrases
Many parks announce upcoming “world’s-first” attractions or additions with confusing terminology. Upon reading the descriptions, future guests might not understand what the attraction is.
Some of these recent descriptions beg the age-old, philosophical question, “Huh?”
| Attraction | Park | Claim |
| Iron Menace | Dorney Park | “The world’s first tilted loop on a dive coaster” |
| Jungle Rush | Dreamworld | “World’s first inclined turntable” |
| Top Thrill 2 | Cedar Point | “Only vertical speedway in the world” and “only dual-tower strata coaster in the world” |
| Voltron Nevera | Europa-Park | “The world’s first Stryker coaster” |
Image courtesy of Europa-Park
In nearly all of these attractions’ official descriptions (linked in the table above), their respective parks don’t explain the unfamiliar words they use. The exception is Top Thrill 2, for which Cedar Point defines a “strata coaster” as “a roller coaster that eclipses the height of 400 feet.” The website doesn’t mention, though, that Cedar Point seemingly made up the term to begin with (as evidenced in a 2003 press release preserved by CP Food Blog).
Image courtesy of Cedar Fair
That’s Not The Truth, Ellen
In some cases, this “world’s first” new attraction language begs the question of its qualification.
During this year’s Fright Nights at Warner Bros. Movie World, the park introduced DCeased, a haunted walkthrough featuring zombie-fied DC superheroes. The attraction’s press materials described DCeased as “the world’s first horror maze.”
Photo courtesy of Village Roadshow Theme Parks
Haunt attractions commonly, and perhaps innocently, use the word “maze” to describe a walkthrough experience that has one linear path, and therefore isn’t truly a maze. All the same, in either sense of the word, DCeased was hardly the “world’s first.” Horror walkthroughs and mazes alike are all over the place during Halloween season, from major theme parks to community farms.
Likewise, in 2019 when Disney announced Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, the company called the walk-through attraction the “first-ever experience inspired by the Walt Disney Animation Studios hit film,” referring to 2016’s “Moana.” So the hero’s fully-themed, indoor character greeting all of her own in 2016 didn’t count as an “experience”?
Photo courtesy of Disney
In an effort to explain mysterious phrases in a story about not explaining mysterious phrases: for the uninitiated, the heading for the section above, “That’s Not the Truth, Ellen,” refers to a 2019 Dakota Johnson quote from “The Ellen Show.”
They’re Reaching, Your Honor
Other times, the claim of a “world’s first” new theme park attraction might be true, but the qualifier is so specific one wonders if the “first” language is necessary. With such specificity and a bit of creative writing, everything can be the “world’s first” of anything.
Earlier this year, Legoland Windsor in the U.K. opened Lego Adventure Golf, “the world’s first Lego-themed indoor golf experience.” Was there really any other destination vying for that distinction?
Image courtesy of Merlin Entertainments
In 2024, Warner Bros. Movie World will open “a world’s first ‘Wizard of Oz’ precinct.” What does that mean?
Image courtesy of Village Roadshow Theme Parks
Upon opening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2020 and Disneyland in 2023, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway wasn’t the world’s first Mickey Mouse attraction (that was Mickey Mouse Club Circus in 1955). Nor was Runaway Railway the first ride to feature Mickey (that may have been The Great Movie Ride in 1989). Therefore, Disney referred to Runaway Railway as the “first major Mickey-themed ride-through attraction.”
Photo courtesy of Disney
Getting Local
When the planet at large has already seen such wonders, companies don’t promote a “world’s first” attraction, but instead narrow the playing field geographically. Again, the language might not be all that clear in exactly what it’s describing.
| Attraction | Park | Claim |
| Apocalypso | Fins Up Water Park (Margaritaville at Lanier Islands) | “Georgia’s first adrenaline-fueled waterslide coaster” |
| The Flash: Speed Force | Warner Bros. Movie World | “The first ride-within-a-ride experience in the Southern Hemisphere” |
| The Flash: Vertical Velocity | Six Flags Great Adventure | “The first super boomerang coaster to open in North America” |
Image courtesy of Six Flags Entertainment
As was the case earlier, a SeaWorld-operated park is one of the few (if only) among the bunch to help guests understand its innovation rather than be confused by it. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, owned by SeaWorld Parks, describes its new DarKoaster attraction as “North America’s first all-indoor straddle coaster.” Admittedly, the claim might have a few too many qualifiers, but the park’s website at least clearly, helpfully defines what a straddle coaster is for those unfamiliar:
A straddle coaster is a type of roller coaster design with a unique seating arrangement. Unlike traditional roller coasters, where riders sit inside the train’s cars, a straddle coaster allows riders to straddle the seat. Straddle coasters often incorporate drops, inversions, and tight turns to maximize the adrenaline rush for riders.
The language includes the guest rather than gaslighting them. Bravo, Busch Gardens Williamsburg!
Photo courtesy of SeaWorld Parks
Your Bluff Is Showing
There is nothing inherently wrong with a company advertising new theme park attractions with exciting language. That’s marketing 101. However, things become muddled when parks use complicated words they fail to define, or otherwise qualify their innovations in such a round-about way that the language comes across as silly rather than intriguing.
Image courtesy of Ardent Leisure
In 2018, Disney called the then-upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind “a one-of-a-kind storytelling coaster.” The company said the attraction “connects the adventure of a storyline with the thrills of a coaster.” Though this language stopped short of outright calling it the world’s first storytelling coaster, Disney’s phrasing nonetheless implied that nothing like Cosmic Rewind existed prior.
Image courtesy of Disney
Not to be outdone, in 2019 Universal called Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure “the world’s first story coaster.” This referred to the ride’s “highly-themed, immersive coaster experience.” Despite beating Cosmic Rewind to the punch in verbiage and opening date, Hagrid’s was hardly the first ride to incorporate storytelling in Orlando, much less in the entire world.
Photo courtesy of Universal
Both companies’ claims effectively discredited their own previous achievements. Is Expedition Everest, which Disney opened in 2006, not a “storytelling coaster”? Is Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, which Universal opened in 2014, not a “story coaster”?
Photo courtesy of Universal
A Call for Credible Sourcing
In researching for this story, I could not locate a glossary or dictionary to define many of the words presented above — which, again, in most cases, the companies behind the parks simply projected without defining themselves. There are various Wikis out there, but to my knowledge the industry does not have a verified, reliable database of these terms. The RCDB (Roller Coaster DataBase) is perhaps the closest such solution to currently exist, but is community-sourced (and excellently so), but not park-accredited.
Image courtesy of Cedar Fair
If companies are to introduce new terms to the industry, a glossary of parameters would be helpful for guests and journalists alike. Sometimes a park distributes a press release with inside-baseball language that it fails to actually define. If the writer responsible for interpreting the language can’t decipher it, how is the general public expected to do so? Does every new theme park attraction need to be the “world’s first” of something, if it’s at the expense of unclear communication?
Image courtesy of Margaritaville Hotels
Furthermore, when the public can decipher such language, they should be able to understand on what basis the claim was made. For instance, in a 2022 blog post, Universal said Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts features “the most innovative technology ever created.” While the attraction is undoubtedly a technological marvel (and is, admittedly, my favorite Universal ride), how would one even begin to determine that it contains “the most innovative technology ever created“?
Image courtesy of Universal
Similarly, I’ve had a Disney pencil (pictured below) for years. I believe it’s from the 1980s, but I’m not certain. Text etched on the pencil’s surface reads: “Walt Disney World | The World’s Greatest Resort”
Sure, many people globally enjoy visiting Walt Disney World. That’s a given. How would Disney, though, back up the statement of the destination being “the world’s greatest resort”? This brings us back to the contrast of this trend: sometimes confusing, other times unintentionally comical.
This conundrum, though, might be the very idea. Will a prospective guest be enticed by an unfamiliar word or extreme hyperbole, as long as it sounds legitimate?
Guardians of the Galaxy:Cosmic Rewind was also touted as Disney’s first reverse launch coaster. I beg to differ as many years earlier I rode Indiana Jones et le Temple du Peril Backwards at Disneyland Paris.