A new dark ride is expected to open this summer on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. Although the adventure is a collaboration between two renowned attraction industry suppliers—Daniels Wood Land (DWL) and Sally Dark Rides—the ride is unique in that it is actually owned and operated by the two suppliers.
Treasure Hunt: The Ride is 75% owned by DWL, headquartered in Paso Robles, California, with Sally Dark Rides of Jacksonville, Florida, owning the remaining 25%.
Based on a true Monterey pirate’s saga, the ride takes guests—armed with playful zappers—on a journey to recover stolen treasure.
“Monterey is the only town on the U.S. West Coast that was actually sacked by pirates—that’s a true story,” Ron Daniels, president of DWL, tells Funworld. “We’re opening this ride right where it happened. [Hippolyte] Bouchard hid his lost treasure, and we need guests’ help to explore the caverns and find it!”
Bouchard was a French-born Argentine sailor, and in 1818 he raided and ransacked the area of Monterey Bay, earning him the “pirate” moniker.
Venturing Out as Operators
Daniels notes that he and his brother, fellow DWL co-owner John Daniels, are familiar with the Cannery Row area and its “sky-high” foot count. Ron says when a location on the famed street became available, it took him only seconds to jump on it and fulfill a 20-year-old dream of building and owning an interactive dark ride. Ron shares that he and John “love” their company’s clients, but that owning the attraction allows them to work without being at the mercy of a client’s budget constraints.
“We put tremendous resources into the scenic, and we believe it’ll bring much perceived value to the experience,” Ron says.
Ron notes the give-and-take with Sally as a co-owner is superb.
“They’re a lot like us: family-owned. We’re doing the things we both believe in, and we think it will show in the bottom-line numbers,” Ron says. Lauren Wood Weaver, vice president of marketing and business development for Sally, echoes his beliefs.
“It’s amazing what two artistic companies can do when they’re inspired, driven, and purposeful. There’s been a harmonious balance between DWL’s and Sally’s contributions—a one‑two punch of attraction designers, storytellers, and artisans. From floor to ceiling, you’re absolutely engulfed in a pirate’s underground lair. DWL created elaborate set pieces and laid the scenic path, and then Sally came in with animatronics, interactive media, and special effects,” Weaver shares.
Creating the Story
Ron pulled back the veil of secrecy with Funworld to share details of the ride experience. “Under Cannery Row, it’s like real caves down there, so we’re calling them ‘Cannery Caverns.’ You walk in off the street and we’ll have a heavily themed ticket-booth area, and then you’ll walk down into the basement to watch a video of the ride’s backstory. We’ll tell guests about Bouchard’s raid, and how we need their help to find his lost treasure,” Ron details.
Guests will enter a waiting elevator along with an attraction attendant. Soon, the elevator gets stuck, and the repairman breaks the cable, so the elevator simulates a fall of 300 feet to the cavern floor below. When a wall inside the elevator opens, riders meet a character named Molina, who, with her donkey companion, offers to help them. After a few surprises, guests board ride vehicles, where Molina asks passengers to test their zappers, igniting a cache of black powder and causing an explosion. Supported by animatronics, the cavern collapses and floods, pushing the vehicle in the wrong direction.
Inside await 200,000 treasure coins, plus “mountains of treasure” on a screen … but the rest of the story, as they say, is a surprise.
Driving Additional Revenue and Partnerships
Together with Sally, DWL came up with the idea of a fee-added power-up token that turns riders’ zappers into “death cannons,” which carry additional power where riders can rack up far greater treasure. “At the end when you stop in front of the scoreboard, score is below your picture and a ‘King of the Mountain’ is declared. We hope that annoys everyone else on the ride and they challenge the winner to a rematch!” Ron says.
With the entire experience lasting 20 minutes, Daniels expects riders to notice that it’s quite different from other dark rides because theming is so intense; even the pre-ride experience will have great theming and animatronics, plus excellent video-gaming technology from Alterface. Other IAAPA member suppliers, such as Extreme Engineering and Gosetto S.R.L., also contributed.
About advice for other suppliers considering attraction ownership, Ron says, “Be careful about the things you don’t know, and that’s the logic of partnering with folks like Sally. It costs less money than the tuition you’ll pay at the school of hard knocks if you don’t. Instead of scrambling to overcome challenges, you can focus on what you do well. Do your research and make sure you talk to experts.”
Weaver adds that owners looking to become operators need to stay realistic and exercise patience. “We each have separate businesses to run, so we’ve had to be flexible with our schedule while being cognizant to not waste any time!” she concludes.
