I truly feel for you friend , but I gotta say instead to bring back that Wacky Ol' Shaky says I! I know it's all about personal preferences but personally dark rides are far more superior than haunts. But in fairness I never had the opportunity to take a tour around the Counts Castle so maybe I'd have a different opinion if I had gone through it. And I do gotta mention that I find it really awesome that they incorporated a boat dark ride into it also. I have fond memories of riding the Haunted River at Kings Dominion when I was a young'n. It breaks my heart how few haunted rides/walkthroughs there are now, when they used to be a guaranteed staple in just about all amusement parks that existed. It wasn't rare to find 2 of'm, but I guess people forgot how cool they are and that makes me a sad guy. Bummer
But, chain parks like Cedar Fair and Six Flags (now Six Flags Entertainment since the merger), Busch (Sea World), and Universal all have haunt events in the fall with indoor and outdoor haunted attractions. There are a few places in North America with permanent haunted attractions like Gatlinburg, TN, Myrtle Beach, SC, Virginia Beach, VA, Wisconsin Dells, WI, Lake George, NY, Niagara Falls, ON and NY, Salem, MA, etc. And parks like Kennywood, Waldameer, and Knoebel's with ride through dark rides, and Kennywood has the last operating Noah's Ark fun house. Morey's Piers (Mariner's) has the Ghost Ship and they reopened part of it. It almost could have closed if the Morey brothers decided it cost too much to operate. Jack Morey just passed away this year. Knoebel's rebuilt the Golden Nugget from the former Hunt's Pier and Dinosaur Beach, (which Morey's bought in 2000) as Black Diamond, using the old track and rebuilt mine cars. Randy's Retro Arcade on the boardwalk has some Jungleland animals from Hunt's Pier as well as props and cars from the Whacky Shack up on shelves. He also has some Dr. Blood's House of Horror props from Sportland Pier, the ride closed after 1983 season and was razed Jan 2007, some of the props are in the old Woolworth Randyland building which is not open to the public probably for liability reasons and the city of Wildwood won't let him. He has a few props on ebay like a chandelier most likely from Dr. Blood's or Whacky Shack (Hunt's Horror 1989 and up), some creature with his hand torn, because he wants to start unloading some of his collection before he passes away. Eric Princz sold some stuff from Castle Dracula that survived the fire to collectors about a couple years ago. There is a push to rebuild it somewhere and next year there will be a memorial to it by the former site on the Cedar Ave. boardwalk by Splash Zone where Nickels' Midway Pier was.
They are going to rebuild it somewhere in the future. Even Angelo Nickels, one of the former pier owners wants it to happen. With that Castle Dracula Weekend, and the memorial at the old spot next year, they are making the public aware of it because there have been new visitors to Wildwood since 2002 and a whole generation born slightly before and after the fire who never knew it. The new one though could possibly be a walk-through only because I don't see them building a new Dungeon boat ride.
Awesome video! I loved going to Wildwood and Castle Dracula when I was a kid! We have a couple of Brigantine Castle and Castle Dracula items in the collection. Nothing crazy, just some original flyers and what not. I wish they would rebuild it! 🤘🙂
They will, eventually. Even Angelo Nickels supports a rebuilding. They will have to build it elsewhere, though not at the original spot. Next year a memorial is going by the old spot.
I feel like there's an alternate version of reality where I get hit by the Wildwood Tram car and then come back as a ghost to haunt the boardwalk with Dracula from the castle. But I guess this version of reality wasn't much different so I'm still happy!
It's really pretty awesome seeing how much fun you guys had there. I'ma try and not make this too long, but it's me so don't be surprised if it rambles and rambles on into infinity, ok? Cool, thanks! My Samhein dark ride that Ive been working on is almost ready, and I've been adding some of my favorite Victorian ghost story spooks into it namely the Nameless Horror of Berkeley Square, and also not exactly Victorian but I love it just the same the Charterhouse Guest "thing" not even mentioning my favorite freaky faeries (remember faeries were feared and frightening before they made them all cutesy in the Edwardian depictions) I'm hoping to get you guys coming over to experience it this year as I live only 20 minutes from the Funland Haunted Mansion! Another cool aspect is that everything is done in a very "Bill Tracyian" manner (day glow, black light psychedelic neatness!) This isn't a Haunt, this is a dark ride through and through. I even have put away some really great Halloween treats for you in the vein of classic movie monster figures, masks and original monster movie poster title cards (the Mummy, House of Dracula, Astro Zombies, Munsters) I even have vinyl records of Famous Ghost stories, Haunted House sound effects and POSSIBLY even something very special which is a record of Vincent Price reading a genuine medieval Grimmoir, Dark Shadows soundtrack and The Munsters (a psychedelic spooky band from the 60's that dressed up like our beloved spooky family with songs themed to spooky greatness! Not to mention some of the OG Misfits records and Screaming Lord Sutch vinyl) Plus I have a extensive library of books dating to the 1700's on my favorite subjects meaning Folklore/Mythology (Faeries, Dionysos psychoactive plants and Gypsy magic being my ideal cup of tea), Ghost Stories, Supernatural, Paranormal, Movie Monsters, Lovecraft and Weird fiction, Spiritual Practices from around the world. If you can't tell I'd be psyched to get your guys opinions on the various homemade stunts, the layout as well as the ride in general. I don't wanna be annoying as I've been asking for a couple years for you guys to come check it out, and I'm not asking you to make a video of it, as I'm more interested in sharing something special that I have a great deal of passion about with people that share the same exact passion for this neato stuff. My name is Tim by z way so if you have the time between now and Halloween let me know, because I believe that you might be able to help me make this passion project even better. I don't charge people money to ride this, as money's not the reason I do this at all, I simply and sincerely want to help other people enjoy this season/holiday of ghouls and ghosts as much as myself, that's all. I really hope that you guys are doing well and hopefully I'm gonna be hearing back from 2 of my absolute favorite TH-camrs sometime soon. It's really good to see you guys enjoying the festivities as much as you are in this video! Peace, Tim P.S. yeah it was as long if not longer than my normal long ass messages but what can I say, I'm just always excited when I talk about this passion project, you digg? Sorry for the length
Love you guys but I get so annoyed that I'm so close to the cool things you do but I find out too late!!! I wish there was a site that tells you what's happening! That halloween flea market I had no idea there was one!!! Well I'm keeping a journal of where you go! There's always next year!!! Happy Halloween!!!!
I never had the chance to ride it, but I've seen some videos, but most are kinda grainy and hard to tell what the hell's goin on in'm. What made it superior? From what I can tell it looks like it had less of a goth atmosphere than now (which to me makes it better on that alone) but I still have love for the way it is now. Sidenote; Does anyone else get sad about how the camera people had in yesteryears, which makes it so difficult finding quality videos of dark rides that aren't around anymore? More than any other rides, it's damn near impossible to get a good view of what's uh the deal in these most mysterious of all the different types of rides (Pink Floyd reference for any wondering why I said it like that). It's especially annoying because what other type of rides are there that are more detailed? (And rides where those details are more important to the ride/rider than in dark rides) But if anyone wants to see some decent videos of dark rides that are lost to the sands of time then check out, The Haunted Hotel in Myrtle Beach, The Fright Zone (Bill Tracy ride Alert!!!), There's another Bill Tracy ride called simply Castle, as well as an attempt at making a Bill Tracy ride that uses the vehicles and tracks in the Terrotorium called Dark Castle. Though it's not defunct but there's a very well shot video of a father and son riding the Trimpers Haunted House that is from the same time as my first ride on Trimpers that shows all of z original stunts (well it also includes the Bill Tracy stunts from Ghost Ship with the original Trimpers stunts) this is pristine quality video where you can see everything from 1991 uploaded from notimpressed. Watch it and be happy dear friends! Then we've got Stillwalk manor which looks really great, but sadly I can't say that I had the pleasure to ride it meself but it looks very well done. There's a few more but unfortunately there are very few more videos of these amazing rides that are well worth watching unless you like pitch black videos with sounds. Actually if you watch an older version of Terroride in Lagoon, it's a whole different ride than the modern version and it is well worth watching Sadly videos of the OG Haunted Castle, Kooky kastle, Le Cachot, Phantasmagoria, z Wacky Shack from Wildwood or Joyland or the Castle of Terror and other Bill Tracy masterpieces, you're in for a round of frustrating darkness. You will see absolutely nothing, but you can hear it, if that's your thang. I really wish I could view these lost treasures like his famed Boothill, or one of the other Haunted houses that Tracy built and I can't say for sure but after watching various old promotional videos for parks from the 60's/70's like Westview Park I believe that they had a ride through version of Pirates Cove as well as a dark ride by Tracy called Davey Jones locker (the Pirates Cove in particular makes me salivate from the mystery alone!) Westview alone contained a Bill Tracy Haunted House a ride through Pirates Cove and a walkthrough haunted house based in the Wild West and Davey Jones Locker in one park!! A few other non Tracy but awesome nonetheless being the venerable Spookhouse that our friends here (Dark Ride Dracula) have made a video on and it seems like this ride is another thing lost in time, it's really a sad thing because this ride was one of the first Haunted dark rides to exist, but along with them was a ride called Witches Woods as well as a ride known as z 13th Hour which along with Pirate ship Skua that has the chance of containing some Bill Tracy stuff but alas we might never know for sure. Like this channel often mentions, get out and do business with these rides as you never know how long you'll have the chance to do so, dark rides are endangered in these troubled times and they need us to continue existing and unfortunately money 100% is our only effective ways in which we can ensure their continued existence. I can't imagine a world without Trimpers Haunted House but as permanent as that ride feels to me, there's been countless other rides that seemed "eternal" in the hearts and minds of others that have been taken down by a lack of revenue (I still hold it against them. Bunch of jerks says the me!) I'm sorry for m'rambles, I truly don't mean to go on and on in the way that I do. I just love this stuff and it makes me a happy guy to know that others love it too! I've got nothing but love for everyone reading these words or even just watching this video, we're all here for the same reason, that reason being that we're all a bunch of spooky love'n nerds and I love you all for it. Peace, Tim
I really thought it was an announcement of the return of Castle Dracula.😢 Bring it back already!
I truly feel for you friend , but I gotta say instead to bring back that Wacky Ol' Shaky says I!
I know it's all about personal preferences but personally dark rides are far more superior than haunts. But in fairness I never had the opportunity to take a tour around the Counts Castle so maybe I'd have a different opinion if I had gone through it. And I do gotta mention that I find it really awesome that they incorporated a boat dark ride into it also. I have fond memories of riding the Haunted River at Kings Dominion when I was a young'n. It breaks my heart how few haunted rides/walkthroughs there are now, when they used to be a guaranteed staple in just about all amusement parks that existed. It wasn't rare to find 2 of'm, but I guess people forgot how cool they are and that makes me a sad guy. Bummer
But, chain parks like Cedar Fair and Six Flags (now Six Flags Entertainment since the merger), Busch (Sea World), and Universal all have haunt events in the fall with indoor and outdoor haunted attractions. There are a few places in North America with permanent haunted attractions like Gatlinburg, TN, Myrtle Beach, SC, Virginia Beach, VA, Wisconsin Dells, WI, Lake George, NY, Niagara Falls, ON and NY, Salem, MA, etc. And parks like Kennywood, Waldameer, and Knoebel's with ride through dark rides, and Kennywood has the last operating Noah's Ark fun house. Morey's Piers (Mariner's) has the Ghost Ship and they reopened part of it. It almost could have closed if the Morey brothers decided it cost too much to operate. Jack Morey just passed away this year. Knoebel's rebuilt the Golden Nugget from the former Hunt's Pier and Dinosaur Beach, (which Morey's bought in 2000) as Black Diamond, using the old track and rebuilt mine cars. Randy's Retro Arcade on the boardwalk has some Jungleland animals from Hunt's Pier as well as props and cars from the Whacky Shack up on shelves. He also has some Dr. Blood's House of Horror props from Sportland Pier, the ride closed after 1983 season and was razed Jan 2007, some of the props are in the old Woolworth Randyland building which is not open to the public probably for liability reasons and the city of Wildwood won't let him. He has a few props on ebay like a chandelier most likely from Dr. Blood's or Whacky Shack (Hunt's Horror 1989 and up), some creature with his hand torn, because he wants to start unloading some of his collection before he passes away. Eric Princz sold some stuff from Castle Dracula that survived the fire to collectors about a couple years ago. There is a push to rebuild it somewhere and next year there will be a memorial to it by the former site on the Cedar Ave. boardwalk by Splash Zone where Nickels' Midway Pier was.
They are going to rebuild it somewhere in the future. Even Angelo Nickels, one of the former pier owners wants it to happen. With that Castle Dracula Weekend, and the memorial at the old spot next year, they are making the public aware of it because there have been new visitors to Wildwood since 2002 and a whole generation born slightly before and after the fire who never knew it. The new one though could possibly be a walk-through only because I don't see them building a new Dungeon boat ride.
Awesome video! I loved going to Wildwood and Castle Dracula when I was a kid! We have a couple of Brigantine Castle and Castle Dracula items in the collection. Nothing crazy, just some original flyers and what not. I wish they would rebuild it! 🤘🙂
They will, eventually. Even Angelo Nickels supports a rebuilding. They will have to build it elsewhere, though not at the original spot. Next year a memorial is going by the old spot.
I feel like there's an alternate version of reality where I get hit by the Wildwood Tram car and then come back as a ghost to haunt the boardwalk with Dracula from the castle. But I guess this version of reality wasn't much different so I'm still happy!
It's really pretty awesome seeing how much fun you guys had there. I'ma try and not make this too long, but it's me so don't be surprised if it rambles and rambles on into infinity, ok? Cool, thanks!
My Samhein dark ride that Ive been working on is almost ready, and I've been adding some of my favorite Victorian ghost story spooks into it namely the Nameless Horror of Berkeley Square, and also not exactly Victorian but I love it just the same the Charterhouse Guest "thing" not even mentioning my favorite freaky faeries (remember faeries were feared and frightening before they made them all cutesy in the Edwardian depictions)
I'm hoping to get you guys coming over to experience it this year as I live only 20 minutes from the Funland Haunted Mansion! Another cool aspect is that everything is done in a very "Bill Tracyian" manner (day glow, black light psychedelic neatness!)
This isn't a Haunt, this is a dark ride through and through. I even have put away some really great Halloween treats for you in the vein of classic movie monster figures, masks and original monster movie poster title cards (the Mummy, House of Dracula, Astro Zombies, Munsters) I even have vinyl records of Famous Ghost stories, Haunted House sound effects and POSSIBLY even something very special which is a record of Vincent Price reading a genuine medieval Grimmoir, Dark Shadows soundtrack and The Munsters (a psychedelic spooky band from the 60's that dressed up like our beloved spooky family with songs themed to spooky greatness! Not to mention some of the OG Misfits records and Screaming Lord Sutch vinyl)
Plus I have a extensive library of books dating to the 1700's on my favorite subjects meaning Folklore/Mythology (Faeries, Dionysos psychoactive plants and Gypsy magic being my ideal cup of tea), Ghost Stories, Supernatural, Paranormal, Movie Monsters, Lovecraft and Weird fiction, Spiritual Practices from around the world.
If you can't tell I'd be psyched to get your guys opinions on the various homemade stunts, the layout as well as the ride in general. I don't wanna be annoying as I've been asking for a couple years for you guys to come check it out, and I'm not asking you to make a video of it, as I'm more interested in sharing something special that I have a great deal of passion about with people that share the same exact passion for this neato stuff. My name is Tim by z way so if you have the time between now and Halloween let me know, because I believe that you might be able to help me make this passion project even better. I don't charge people money to ride this, as money's not the reason I do this at all, I simply and sincerely want to help other people enjoy this season/holiday of ghouls and ghosts as much as myself, that's all.
I really hope that you guys are doing well and hopefully I'm gonna be hearing back from 2 of my absolute favorite TH-camrs sometime soon. It's really good to see you guys enjoying the festivities as much as you are in this video!
Peace, Tim
P.S. yeah it was as long if not longer than my normal long ass messages but what can I say, I'm just always excited when I talk about this passion project, you digg? Sorry for the length
Let us know when it's up and running!!! We'd love to check it out!! 🧛🦇
Hey brother do you have any of them thar memoriabilities if which you
Love you guys but I get so annoyed that I'm so close to the cool things you do but I find out too late!!!
I wish there was a site that tells you what's happening! That halloween flea market I had no idea there was one!!! Well I'm keeping a journal of where you go! There's always next year!!! Happy Halloween!!!!
That is my very legendary ancestor 22:37
The dungeon was waaaaaay better when it was Dante’s Inferno inside and out
I never had the chance to ride it, but I've seen some videos, but most are kinda grainy and hard to tell what the hell's goin on in'm. What made it superior? From what I can tell it looks like it had less of a goth atmosphere than now (which to me makes it better on that alone) but I still have love for the way it is now.
Sidenote; Does anyone else get sad about how the camera people had in yesteryears, which makes it so difficult finding quality videos of dark rides that aren't around anymore? More than any other rides, it's damn near impossible to get a good view of what's uh the deal in these most mysterious of all the different types of rides (Pink Floyd reference for any wondering why I said it like that). It's especially annoying because what other type of rides are there that are more detailed? (And rides where those details are more important to the ride/rider than in dark rides)
But if anyone wants to see some decent videos of dark rides that are lost to the sands of time then check out, The Haunted Hotel in Myrtle Beach, The Fright Zone (Bill Tracy ride Alert!!!), There's another Bill Tracy ride called simply Castle, as well as an attempt at making a Bill Tracy ride that uses the vehicles and tracks in the Terrotorium called Dark Castle. Though it's not defunct but there's a very well shot video of a father and son riding the Trimpers Haunted House that is from the same time as my first ride on Trimpers that shows all of z original stunts (well it also includes the Bill Tracy stunts from Ghost Ship with the original Trimpers stunts) this is pristine quality video where you can see everything from 1991 uploaded from notimpressed. Watch it and be happy dear friends!
Then we've got Stillwalk manor which looks really great, but sadly I can't say that I had the pleasure to ride it meself but it looks very well done. There's a few more but unfortunately there are very few more videos of these amazing rides that are well worth watching unless you like pitch black videos with sounds. Actually if you watch an older version of Terroride in Lagoon, it's a whole different ride than the modern version and it is well worth watching
Sadly videos of the OG Haunted Castle, Kooky kastle, Le Cachot, Phantasmagoria, z Wacky Shack from Wildwood or Joyland or the Castle of Terror and other Bill Tracy masterpieces, you're in for a round of frustrating darkness. You will see absolutely nothing, but you can hear it, if that's your thang.
I really wish I could view these lost treasures like his famed Boothill, or one of the other Haunted houses that Tracy built and I can't say for sure but after watching various old promotional videos for parks from the 60's/70's like Westview Park I believe that they had a ride through version of Pirates Cove as well as a dark ride by Tracy called Davey Jones locker (the Pirates Cove in particular makes me salivate from the mystery alone!) Westview alone contained a Bill Tracy Haunted House a ride through Pirates Cove and a walkthrough haunted house based in the Wild West and Davey Jones Locker in one park!!
A few other non Tracy but awesome nonetheless being the venerable Spookhouse that our friends here (Dark Ride Dracula) have made a video on and it seems like this ride is another thing lost in time, it's really a sad thing because this ride was one of the first Haunted dark rides to exist, but along with them was a ride called Witches Woods as well as a ride known as z 13th Hour which along with Pirate ship Skua that has the chance of containing some Bill Tracy stuff but alas we might never know for sure.
Like this channel often mentions, get out and do business with these rides as you never know how long you'll have the chance to do so, dark rides are endangered in these troubled times and they need us to continue existing and unfortunately money 100% is our only effective ways in which we can ensure their continued existence. I can't imagine a world without Trimpers Haunted House but as permanent as that ride feels to me, there's been countless other rides that seemed "eternal" in the hearts and minds of others that have been taken down by a lack of revenue (I still hold it against them. Bunch of jerks says the me!)
I'm sorry for m'rambles, I truly don't mean to go on and on in the way that I do. I just love this stuff and it makes me a happy guy to know that others love it too!
I've got nothing but love for everyone reading these words or even just watching this video, we're all here for the same reason, that reason being that we're all a bunch of spooky love'n nerds and I love you all for it. Peace, Tim