Five hundred and sixty-nine days after being partially destroyed by a tornado, Scene75 Dayton is back – bigger and better than before.
Rebuilding Scene75 Dayton
The end of Memorial Day weekend 2019 saw multiple devastating tornadoes strike the Dayton, Ohio area, killing two and causing an estimated billion dollars of destruction. Scene75 suffered significant damage: parts of the roof were ripped off, walls crumbled, and there was flooding due to broken sprinkler system pipes – just to name a few of the issues they had to deal with. Luckily, no guests or staff were in the building at the time.
Much like the college students of Team 31, when an obstacle stood in their way they didn’t just mope around about it; they rolled up their sleeves and got to work in order to turn a negative into a positive. The Scene75 team was determined to not just rebuild the center, but expand upon it to bring it back bigger and better than before.
Originally opened in 2012, CEO Jonah Sandler told Amusement Today they had already been thinking about expansion at the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020. “The tornado changed the plan but also in many ways forced our hand into the expansion…”
Initial plans to reopen by summer 2020 were put on hold when another disaster struck, the COVID-19 global pandemic grounded their progress. “While there was some activity in our building for most of the shutdown, COVID certainly slowed us down,” said Sandler, as the company attempted to press on with the rebuild and expansion during the government imposed shutdown. “We had difficulty getting all of our vendors on site and also difficulty with insurance payouts. It has been an extremely long process and rebuild.”
After nearly nineteen long months, Scene75 reopened on December 16, 2020 with 40,000 additional square feet, bringing the total to an impressive 164,000. It’s obvious the team used their knowledge and experience from building the other four Scene75 locations to improve the original. They saw the success of the roller coaster at the Columbus location so not only added one here, but ordered the next size up. Besides the coaster, other new attractions include a two-story spinning drop tower by Moser, new 18 hole miniature golf course, a Chance Rides two-story carousel, and more.
Tsunami Roller Coaster
Scene75 Dayton is now home to the second largest indoor roller coaster in Ohio (the first currently being Flight of Fear at Kings Island. Second place at different points would have once been held by Disaster Transport at Cedar Point or one of the coasters at the shuttered I-X Indoor Amusement Park). Tsunami is a SBF Visa MX612 v5.0, one of only five in the world. It’s larger than the popular figure-eight model that’s installed at the Columbus location (and hundreds of other places) and the increase in size was well worth it.
The track twists around two support columns for the building’s roof.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t ridden very many roller coasters in the past year, but I was pleasantly surprised by this unassuming coaster. It doesn’t look like much but watch out for that turn followed by the short but sharp drop. If you’re lucky enough to ride in an unbalanced car (where only one side is loaded) and you’re in the last car of the train, it can actually be surprisingly intense. When you get that perfect amount of spin while going around the elevated turn and hit the drop at a certain timing and angle it can toss you around pretty good – and in a good way! Five laps around the track had me plenty dizzy. Cost to ride is $7 per person.
TIP: Sit in the last car for a more thrilling ride!
Differences Between Scene75 Dayton and Scene75 Columbus
Many of the same safety measures I’ve seen in place at Scene75 Columbus were being executed here, with the addition of limiting the number of guests inside the building.
Tip: visit early in the day or on a weekday to avoid a line to get in.
I thought I’d take a minute to compare the two Scene75’s I’ve been to: Columbus and Dayton. They’re both pretty similar with the obvious difference being Columbus occupies two stories while Dayton is just one. They have the same drop tower but Columbus goes through the second floor, so guests have the unique perspective of being nearly eye level with the top of the tower. Dayton now has the better golf course and the better coaster, plus the addition of the unique carousel. But Columbus seems to have more to do, more games, and a themed restaurant. Overall, I give the slight edge to Columbus but if you’re a coaster fan traveling from Cedar Point to Kings Island why not stop at both and ride two new coasters?
Scene75 Dayton Tour
Get a look inside Scene75 Dayton by watching our short video montage below:
There are now five Scene75 locations (Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh) and I hope to see more in the future. My dream would be for one of these locations to get an even bigger, more thrilling coaster, like a Skyline or RMC single rail Raptor.
Learn more about Scene75 by visiting their website here.
Have you ever been to a Scene75 location? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!
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