For a nominal fee, the San Francisco Dungeon at Fisherman’s Wharf is willing to give you the equivalent of a one-story plunge into the bay.
You don’t actually splash down in the water, of course—assuming all goes right. They actually did build the attraction six feet below sea level, so you never know.
The Dungeon is a kind of combination historical walking tour and haunted house that opened in 2014, right next to the wax museum.
Some of the Bay Area’s hammiest local actors regale visitors with Barbary Coast stories in the midst of some fairly impressive sets (25,000 square feet in all).
Parent company Merlin Entertainments has Dungeons all over Europe, but San Francisco is their first and so far only American attraction. With an eye toward spicing things up a bit, they opened “Escape From Alcatraz” over Halloween weekend.
This new addition, which began construction a few months ago, provides a more visceral finale for the tour. To simulate a leap from the peaks of the Rock into the bay below, guests are strapped into harnesses and then fired 11 feet down.
It’s not much of a drop compared to those at outdoor amusement parks. But it is the equivalent of a one-story plunge, and the atmosphere adds a little edge to it.
The Dungeon always likes to play up its innovation at squeezing theme park-like contraptions into its space, heavily promoting the attraction’s underground boat ride when it first opened.
Unfortunately, the boat was perpetually broken down for the first year of service. Hopefully they have better luck with the big drop.
- Escape Alcatraz [SF Dungeon]
- SF’s Newest Tourist Trap Scares the Hell Out Of Tourists [San Francisco Magazine]
- SF Dungeon Adds Drop [Theme Park University]