Things you don’t see at theme parks anymore

[Inferno]

Ok there are plenty of jokes to be had with this one, but I’ve got a few observations of things that have quietly disappeared from theme parks over the last decade or so.

 

Park branded Ponchos

This is a weird one for me.  Seemingly overnight about 10 years ago these all just vanished out of thin air.
These used to be everywhere.  On all the water rides there would always be people wearing them, and when it rained there were ponchos galore!

Although I know it was a waste of plastic, I almost miss seeing these.  I remember being in Florida years ago and spotting countless UK park ponchos around.

The iconic “don’t wet yourself” Thorpe ones were everywhere.

Cigarette smoke

As someone who’s always lived in a non smoking house, growing up I always associated the smell of smoke with theme parks!

It’s a sign of the times I suppose, but the smell of smoke has all but disappeared from theme parks (replaced by those toilet air fresheners that people suck on now).
 

Wasps

Another sign of the times I think. Many of the fizzy drinks are now sugar free by default.

The queue lines across the UK were always dreadful for wasps during the summer time.  Remember those horrible wasp catchers they used to hang in the trees that were always full to the brim with dead ones?

 

On ride photos 

What happened to these? You used to see countless people wandering around with ORPs at the parks!  They seem to have faded away!

[Benin]

The push for digital only ORPs. That said they're still about and have 2 physical ones that I've purchased since 2023.

 

Can I change it to things you now see all the time? Because vloggers. And (especially at Towers) cosplayers are just everywhere. Saw someone last weekend in full Phalanx get up complete with name badge and box with fake egg of Nemesis creature in it. It’s weird to me.

[JoshC.]

Yeah ORPs are slowly becoming more digital, especially in the UK. It's weird as European parks have them significantly cheaper (Phantasialand has been 5€ per photo for the past 10 years at least).

 

Inferno's list is pretty comprehensive of all the things I can think of though. 

 

I think one thing you see significantly less though (and it sounds kind of obvious) is the long lines outside a park. Ticket offices are a thing of the past what with buying online being the norm / default. Some parks don't even sell on the day tickets anymore. Long gone are the days where you turn up to a park with a printed out ticket from home and you can feel a tiny bit smug walking past everyone who's queueing to buy a ticket (and probably paying more than you did!)

[Inferno]

Ooh that’s a good point…

 

Everyone used to show up with a cutout of a barcode on a cereal box or bag of chocolates to get their 2for1 or 50% off tickets.   Those deals were very good value weren’t they