RCT Discussion / Attractiepark Blaarmeersen - RCT2 timeline park

YEAR 0

The city council of Gent had a big issue on its hands. Farys, which is the municipal water provider and distributor, elected a new CEO: Leo Iberaal. L. Iberaal was known to be a conservative and in a way to cut costs he decided to get rid of the sport and recreation facilities they have in their ownership. Because in a typical government style, some city councils brought their faciliteit to Farys in order to cut costs and make their finances look better than they are. 

 

But now Farys had made a huge sale which would hugely affect the city of Gent and its citizens. L. Iberaal has agreed to sell the Blaarmeersen domain to Gentian entrepreneur Pier Kepierla. Pier Kepierla made big money in the puppet industry and however he keeps his personal wealth secret, he's regarded as the richest Gentian and one of the richest persons in Belgium. 

 

The Blaarmeersen is a very big domain located at the edge of the city center, near the watersportbaan (a huge rowing race course). The Blaarmeersen offers recreation to the Gentians with a lake where people can swim in and a beach. There are many sport facilities as well, with the Topsport Hal as a big venue for atlethic games in Flanders. The Blaarmeersen also has a BMX track, a rugby field, tennis and squash facilities, football fields and a huge indoor climbing hall. Next to that, it's a very green domain where people enjoy their sunday walks. 

 

The intentions of Pier Kepierla are clear, Pier wants to transform the Blaarmeersen into a full size theme park. "I'm a big fan of theme parks and the leasure industry, and on that part Gent has nothing to offer. We are a big city with a lot of people living here, or visiting as a tourist. A theme park would have its place here. I fully believe that this project can and will succeed". The neighbours however, aren't as thrilled with that idea. The Blaarmeersen edges a social housing zone and the people there feel abandoned by their mayor. "This would never be located in Latem or Sint-Amandsberg, because that's where the rich people live. We are poor and thus we are being obligated to live next to a noisy theme park, where a lot of cars will pass by." says a local resident.

 

It's not only the local residents that have their complaints about the new theme park. Local Gentians have written to the mayor to express concerns that they won't be able to go swimming in the Blaarmeersen or they won't have a place to practive their favorite sport. but Pier Kepierla wants to ease the concerns: "I'm a local Gentian myself so I know how important the Blaarmeersen are for our citizens. I have no intention to take the beach and the lake away, it will just be organised a bit differently. I have just bought the domain, it won't be new Disneyland or Walibi from next year on. Transition will be gradual and I'm sure the locals will love the new Blaarmeersen theme park. After all, it will also create a lot of new job opportunities in our area!"

 

The mayor said he'll invite Pier Kepierla for a good talk about the Blaarmeersen and its future. In the meanwhile he'll keep on eye on the Blaarmeersen and make sure no rules are being broken.

 

 

 

 

Le Beach House, a brasserie where you can go for a little snack after you took a good swim in the Blaarmeersen lake. There are also changing rooms, toilets, showers and lockers available. 

 

 

 

 

Blaarmeersen also has a camping, with trailers and a meadow where tents can be placed.

 

 

 

 

From left to right: a cafe, offices and a Basic Fitness. These buildings edge the Blaarmeersen domain but are not owned by it. Therefore it doesn't have to fear the new theme park plans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download Recreatiepark Blaarmeersen year 0: 

 Attractiepark Blaarmeersen - jaar 0.zip (24.26MB)
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This is great! Super nostalgic and enjoyable. Always happy to see you working on new projects. Feels very believable

Le Beach House is perfectly ugly - good job!

 

edit: and those dome tents are genius, wow.

feels very 2007, good job! looking forward to wherever you take the narrative!

YEAR 1

 

One year later and we could open our first rides! The transition to a full regular theme park has begun. Sadly, my conversation with the mayor Geert Ratis didn't promise any good. It doesn't help that the mayor is a socialist who has a dislike for private companies. He can't do anything about the theme park transition but made sure he can make our life difficult on every possible way. 

 

To easen the relationship I signed an agreement with the city council where I made some promises. The beach should stay free and reachable for Gentians, the parking lots near the watersportbaan can not be used by park visitors and we will organise a commission with the neighbourhood so the neighbours can have a say in our investment plans. 

 

G. Ratis is just elected, so we will have to wait another 4 years to get a new mayor that may be favorable for us. I've heard L. Iberaal has some desires to go into local government, it might be a good idea to support him... Enough politics for now, let's talk theme park! The tennis and squash facilities had to go, since it was the ideal place to start our theme park expansion. 

 

 

 

We did not have much time to redraw the domain completely. But one of the biggest decisions we had to made is how we would operate. I prefer a classical one-ticket-for-all at the entrance gates operations like the other Belgian theme parks operate. But that isn't possible in the timefrime we had plus we are obligated to keep the entrance to the beach free and accessible. So we decided to go for a pay-per-ride system, where you can buy tokens which you can use to enter a ride. We also offer an all-in wristband that gives you entrance to all rides. We made this building near Le Beach House where the tokens and wristbands will be sold. 

 

 

 

 

 

The plaza before Le Beach House was an ideal place to put a ride down. So we went with a carroussel named Paardenmolen. Most of the people enter the domain here so it's a great place to pull them in to the theme park part of the park.

 

 

 

 

 

We also bought another mill we named Scrambler. A bit more thrilling than the carroussel. Across the scrambler we had plans for a ride but we just didn't have enough time to realise it for this year. That will be a new ride for next year.

 

 

 

 

 

We also added pedalo's on the lake, it was kinda shocking Blaarmeersen didn't already had it. 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I was keen on having a rollercoaster from the very start. This is what makes people come to theme parks and this is wat makes us serious about becoming a theme park. But the city council said it would not approve a rollercoaster, or at least it would need more time to look at a license application. Joke's on them, we don't need a license for a moveable coaster so we bought a second hand portable wild mouse! Maybe not the right move to get on good terms with the city council, but a theme park without a coaster is like a cafe without beer.

 

 

 

 

 

Another thing we did was tear down the indoor climbing hall. It was huge and it was ugly, so while we didn't have any plans to build a ride anytime soon on that place, I just wanted it gone. We extended parking west which gives us some needed extra parking space. We doubted to extend parking south as well but decided that that ground is too close to the park to use for parking space. We added a minigolf over there, a new addition the residents of the camping will appreciate for sure.

 

 

 

So how did the Gentians recieve us? Pretty good given all the drama before opening. It's clear we have a long way to go to become a national player in the theme park industry but we'll take step by step. The locals embracing us, is the first step to more!

What attempt is this to turn the real life Blaarmeersen into a theme park? 3rd? Seeing how compared to previous attempts this actually looks like the real life area, I'd say you're already one step ahead!

 

Loving the map and liking the story so far! Looks like Lembeek has competition....There seems to be some sharp practices going on with the management and politics here, I wonder what effect that will have on the development of the park.

YEAR 2

 

After all the hassle of getting the park ready for its first year of operation, we had a much smoother second year of operation. We only needed to put our focus on one new ride: the Oldtimers. In this ride you can cruise along an oldtimer and enjoy the gardens. 

 

 

 

 

That is the only new ride for this year, but we also opened up a new restaurant. In the Grill House you can enjoy a variety of grilled meat. Since Gent is a progressive city, we also cater to the vegetarians. They can enjoy a nicely grilled salad. Everything is grilled here! We built this near the pedalo's, away from the beach, as to preserve this restaurant more for park visitors than for beach visitors.

 

 

 

It's also a start of a new theme zone... or will we do theme zones? We still need a big masterplan on how to tackle that. That will be something for the coming years to figure out.

Loving the car ride, and excited for the future. But that path near the grill restaurant can use some love with bins and lights. It's very empty right now.

Two 400m tracks? What is this, heaven?

YEAR 3

 

Once again we have a new ride for our visitors. One new ride doesn't sound much, but believe me it was hard work! We had to cut some trees, adjust paths, fence the path around the lake completely and we had to build miles of tracks... because our new ride is a park train, the Blaarmeersen Express.

 

 

 

We installed 3 station, the main one located on the carroussel plaza and it has a fully indoor queue and station. The other 2 are outdoor, one is near the Grillhouse and the other one is at the opposite side of the lake. 

 

 

 

This train ride ofc needed a special maintenance place for its own. We used the space between the athletic- and football fields for that. A big reason why this place was ideal for us was that we had to adjust the path between parking east and the lake path. From now on, you can't walk directly from parking east to the lake path, you have to go either via carroussel plaza or via the path near Scrambler and the Oldtimers. This is one of the steps needed fence the theme park off the outside.

 

 

At least as important as this new ride, even more so if you ask me, are our new staff members. It's becoming too much for me, I needed to delegate tasks and responsibilities to let this park grow. Meet my new helping hands:

 

- Werner Wardley: Head of design and imagineering. He'll be responsible for designing the park, its themes and its rides. Of course I'll keep weighing in with suggestions for new rides but it will be Werners task to draw our future. I already gave him a task for a big new ride... 

 

- Phoebe Lanten: Head of greenery and foliage. She will make sure our flowers, bushes and trees will shine to create a refreshing green atmosphere.

 

- Harry Andig: Head of our technical service. Harry has to make sure all our rides run safely and without problems. A position needed to be filled before Werner realises the task I gave him!

 

Together we will make Blaarmeersen great! Not again because we never were a great theme park, we just started... But one day we will be great. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loving the car ride, and excited for the future. But that path near the grill restaurant can use some love with bins and lights. It's very empty right now.

 

 

I'm an old man, I only now discorver that I can mass place bins and so with the scenery manager...  

Great expansion, a train ride is always good fun. Love the Merho-esque naming going on. 

YEAR 4

 

Not really much to report honestly, we didn't open a new ride this year. But that doesn't mean we didn't do anything. Behind the scenes we have a lot going on... but more on that later. A thing we did was build a new place for the green- and technical department. Now they have the best facilities needed to function as best as they can.

 

There's also a big shack where we can store trains and other ride components. It's a bit big for our size now but it's built to grow with the park. The new TD/Greenery as we call it, is located next to Topsport Hal. We have plenty of space their to expand if necessary. 

 

 

 

 

 

The most exciting and important news came from outside the park. Good news everybody, Leo Iberaal won the elections! He'll be the mayor of Gent for the next 6 years. Since we put some funds into his election campagn we expect a more cooperative city council. The socialists of Geert Ratis are still a big party and they are in the city coalition but their alderman aren't really in position to disturb us. It's actually a genius move from L. Iberaal because the socialists won't be able to ignore us being a fully theme park now and they can't switch from that position anymore after the next elections because they were in a city council that is gonna help us becoming a real theme park.

 

Of course our team did their house work and we prepared plans based on the scenario that L. Iberaal would win. That means we finally can go big and the first big addition is foreseen to open next year already. Coincidentally it will be our 5th year anniversary as well, talking about good luck. The next 6 years onder mayor L. Iberaal will be a period of great investments for us. We have to become too big for a possible next mayor to keep us down. 

 

 

Go Leo! Let's hope he doesn't suffer any political scandals... 

 

Looking forward to seeing the new expansion!

YEAR 5

 

A special year, this year, because it marks our 5th anniversary as a theme park! And because of the great election results of last year we could go big in our celebration. You might suspected it, but our new ride is a rollercoaster! We were really due to have a new one, a proper big one, because ultimately coasters make the park.

 

It will also help my ego since Blaarmeersen kinda was the laughing stock among other Belgian park owners. One of them even said at a Belgoparks meeting (the lobbygroup of the Belgian theme parks) that first we should build a rollercoaster that can not be stolen overnight if we want to hang with the big boys... So we did exactly that...

 

 

 

 

I present to you: Timber, our new wooden rollercoaster. Try to steal this overnight   With a height of 30m and a track length just over a kilometer, Timber isn't quite the small one. But it is exactly the kind of rollercoaster we need to put ourselves on the map and that will get more visitors to our park. I always loved wooden rollercoasters so the choice was made very easy. 

 

It's designed by The Gravity Group, an excellent American constructor of wooden rollercoasters. We placed it behind the grill house as sort of a nice backdrop. The coaster was recieved really well by the public who loved the big amount of airtime hills combined with some nice turns.

 

Fun fact: it is not the first wooden coaster in the city of Gent. That credit goes to the Scenic Railway wooden coaster that was located in the Citadelpark in 1913 which was built for the world expo of that year. Sources of that time said it reached 150 km/h which is very doubtful. It also caused the death of a ride operator when the brakes failed and the ride operator tried to stop the train manually... which didn't end well. Well, I hope our Timber has a better future for itself.

 

 

 

 

It's also the very first project where our lead imagineer Werner Wardley worked on and I think he exceeded our expectations. Werner went with a Canadian village as a theme for this zone. He added an entrance port to the zone, themed as an old fortress, and also made sure to include a photo point between the Grill House and train station. This way our newest coaster is fully visible to be admired by our guests.

 

 

 

 

Timber is not the only new ride we added, new for this year is also Log Saw, a topspin. We really didn't have anything thrill to offer so we really needed a ride like this. It's the first ride in the Blaarmeersen that inverts you! The fake boulder work and water effects will give an extra sensation to the ride experience.

 

Next to Timbers entrance we also built a small merchandising shop. That's one way how we want to expand our revenue. We noticed a lot of Belgian coaster enthusiasts buying specific theme park merchandising in foreign theme parks, so we try to jump on that wagon as well. 

 

As you can see, our Canadian zone is far from finished. Werner Wardley designed this whole zone already but the other additions that will finish this zone are for next year. 

YEAR 6

 

This year we finished our Canadian village with 2 more new rides. We're happy to add another big new ride to our park in the form of Yukon River Splash, a log flume. Water rides are always very popular with the big public and log flumes are a theme park classic. So I really wanted to have one as well in our park and let our Canadian village fit the log flume theme perfectly!

 

 

 

 

It has 2 drops, a smaller and a big one, and its big lift also marks the other end of the Canadian village. We extended the big lake a bit so we could have the final and big drop over the lake. We did use buoys to fence it so that it's clear to our guests they can't come too near with the pedalos. 

 

 

 

 

 

We also created an extra little snackpoint near the log flume we named Yukon Snacks. Here you can grab some streetfood on the go like some fries in a cone or a bratwurst. 

 

 

 

 

The second new ride this year is Sasquatch Tours, in which you ride along a truck into the Canadian forests. But watch out, you might cross the path of the mythical Saquatch! We also added a picknick place next to it.

 

 

 

 

 

And a final overview of the Canadian village. I'm really proud of it myself, this area of our park definitely feels like a real theme park should feel like. We need of course more zones like this and that is what we'll focus on for the coming years. Excited to see what more our imagineer Werner Wardley will bring to the park!

 

 

 

 

 

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You're expanding fast! Loving the look of this park and how cohesive it is from the start. one things I do miss on your screens though: peeps!

Some of the macro is really fantastic and makes this park super accessible. Reminds me of the old days of quick building and screen sharing. Very nice Fred.

YEAR 7

 

The Canadian village with its log flume and wooden coaster were, and still are, a big hit. We definitely saw an increase in our attendance. But since we are still operating by a pay-per-ride system and the whole park is freely accessible we really do need to get the most bucks out of every visitor. How can we make the people visiting the Blaarmeersen not for the theme park, but for the domain, pay us?

 

 

 

By offering them panoramic views that is! Opposite of the beach, halfway the path around the lake we placed a panoramic tower of 85 meter heigh. From there you have an amazing view of the city of Gent and the nearby villages of Drongen and Sint-Denijs-Westrem. People pay big bucks to visit a viewpoint at a skyscraper or a ferris wheel like the London Eye. So we hope to gain some extra bucks with our tower.

 

That was all for this year, but for next year we are planning to open a new theme zone with a big ride once again. 

 

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The park is made peepable and in the meanwhile I've let them in So next download and screens will be with peeps. Unless they were horribly annoying

 

Quick building and having fun is all what this is about, thanks Posix!

Nice addition. Really like the ice cream sculpture, that's nice and creative. 

YEAR 8

 

The panoramic tower wasn't quite a succes. Not what we hoped for but the ice cream parlor next to it proved to be a hit, so we at least got that. Despite that we still went on with our plans for a new zone this year...

 

 

 

This year we started a Mexican zone, located between the Canadian village and the entrance zone. Highlight of the zone is the new boat ride Quest for El Dorado which takes you deep into the jungle, can you find the mythical city of gold? Watch out for the wild animals and the waterfalls you'll have to overcome to lay your hands on the gold!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's of course not the only ride in the new zone, we also built a spinning tea cup ride. Instead of tea cups, we shaped the vehicles to sombreros and named the ride Los Sombreros. 

 

 

 

 

We also provided a new toilet block for our guests in this zone. It's also noticable that there's a big lot of land cleared. We have a another big new ride planned over there but without telling too much, it's a very complex kind of ride and we need our full attention on it to realise it. That new ride is planned to open next year! 

 

 

We have 2 years left under mayor L. Iberaal, so we are planning to use it to our advantage. Two more years to make ourselves too big to be kept down by future city councils!