Dumb Mother

[Aramika]

I like to sit in the very last row and put my hands straight up in the air.

I do too! my friends all think I'm crazy for doing it though. I just tell them they're missing out on all the fun

[Evil Queen]

Except for epileptics.

I'm epileptic and I love roller coasters. <3 I just wish I could ride them more often.

[ShinyGreenApple]

OT, the ONLY ride that makes me sick to this day is that damned Viking ship that swings back and forth slowly. On two seperate occasions I was dragged on there by some friends, despite my protests that I'd get ill. Both times I threw up afterward. I made sure to aim DIRECTLY at their shoes both times.

Ah, I love that thing! It's the only carnival ride that I will go on anymore. (Why my motion sickness tolerance left me at around age 18, I'll never know ) I like to sit in the very last row and put my hands straight up in the air.

[Andara Bledin]

Mmm.... another coaster junkie, here.

Yeah, carnie rides are not particularly safe. Safe enough, but only barely.

And I've known people who worked short stints at carnivals. Unless you are a Carnie, it sucks serious ass.

The "hang for 7 seconds then drop" ride at Magic Mountain is called Freefall. The time you wait at the top of the tower before the drop isn't actually a set amount. It varies slightly from fall to fall just to give you that much more of a thrill when it doesn't drop when you expect it to. I love that stuff.

An interesting note, but the rides at Magic Mountain (out here in California) are often much older than the rides on the east coast. I don't know that it happens so much these days, but it used to be that some rides would start out in the east coast parks, and then, when they were phased out, they'd be moved west. But as I mentioned, I'm pretty sure that's much less likely to be the case any more.

^-.-^

[ravenrose]

I am a self-proclaimed roller coaster junkie, I absolutely love them.

But you couldn't drag me onto a salt-and-pepper ride or one of those one that just takes you up and drops you repeatedly if my life depended on it. It's not that they scare me, but for some reason, that makes me so queasy just thinking about it.

I amazed me how many people would argue with me at the coaster I worked at to let their kids ride. We had a height requirement, and were very strict about it, because we were floorless. A kid that wasn't tall enough probably didn't have that big of a torso, and was at risk of slipping out of the restraints :shudder: . Just because the other ride with the same height restriction would let them ride (the one that *had* a floor). I constantly told parents (and did not get in trouble, because my sup agreed with me) that because *they* didn't care about their child's safety, that I would, and refuse to let them ride.

I rode the roller coasters I worked at at a certain major theme park nearly every day, and still love it. There's one that you hang for 7 seconds before it drops you straight down. *That* I love!

[Primer]

Back about 1978 I spent 2 weeks with a carnival (a friend actually worked and traveled with them). To this day, I will NOT get on any rides at a traveling carnival. They just are not safe IMHO. I would probably still do rides at someplace permanent like Six Flags, though. They get put through a LOT more inspections.

BTW, working a carnival is far from glamorous. Wages are extremely low, expenses are quite high, and the work is very hard and dirty. Those two weeks really opened my eyes!

[tropicsgoddess]

oh the starship...at my county fair at the time they called it Gravitron. I never felt so dizzy in my life after going on that ride. That lady needs a serious whack on her head to think that a little baby could go on a ride like that!

[Peppergirl]

I used to LOVE the Rotorer (sp) at Kings Island. They closed it years ago, unfortunately.

Taking a kid on there?

OT, the ONLY ride that makes me sick to this day is that damned Viking ship that swings back and forth slowly. On two seperate occasions I was dragged on there by some friends, despite my protests that I'd get ill. Both times I threw up afterward. I made sure to aim DIRECTLY at their shoes both times.

[blas]

I think what happened was the typical too many plugs in the plug-in. It was the middle of the day, so obviously it didn't get dark, but EVERY ride froze up (this was a small fair, less than 15 rides) and everything that ran on electricity died for that amount of time. I felt especially sorry for the people riding the Bullet, they were stuck sideways, upside down, or facing straight down for 45 minutes.

The Zipper was always one of my favorite rides, but never again.

I was there with some friends. A lot of us were screaming because we didn't realize it was an outage right away, and we were certain the ride had jammed and soon we were going to plummet to our deaths. It was horrifying.....I remember all the carnies scurrying around and all the parents freaking out.

That's your Final Destination moment of the day.

[Aramika]

I went on the Zipper. There was a power surge/outage/whatever. I was stuck upside down with my back kinked for 45 minutes.

you got stuck on the Zipper?!? I'm always afraid that I will whenever I ride that death trap ride......... but I still love it, no clue why.

[blas]

I quit going on anything riskier than the Tilt O Whirl after the incident in 2001....

What incident is that?

There is a small fair every summer in my hometown further north in Wi. I went on the Zipper. There was a power surge/outage/whatever. I was stuck upside down with my back kinked for 45 minutes.

So anything worse than the Tilt O Whirl is a big no no for me.

[Triscuitty]

Ooh the Gravitron was my favoritest ride ever! I've never had the motion sickness problem, luckily for me. I remember it having TV monitors suspended from the ceiling of it, and speakers would blast some kind of loud music, too. Possibly with strobe lights, though...it's been a long time and I could be confusing that with something else.

I really shudder to think what would happen to a baby in there, though. Certain people should not be allowed to reproduce.

[SongsOfDragons]

On the other hand, Kennywood now has the Exterminator. Any rollercoaster that mostly takes place in the dark is a good roller coaster.

Except for epileptics. RF X:No Way Out at Thorpe Park in England.

Been on Rotor once, at a Steam Fair many years ago. Can't remember whether I enjoyed it or not.

The only ride that has ever made me physically ill was Pendulous at Pleasure Island, also in England. It was a spinning circular gondola as I'm sure some of you may have seen, only this one sped up during the last few swings, and I'm sure the fact that one's legs were actually on a floor instead of dangling in space had something to do with it... *urp*

[Metody]

Same here! Kennywood had a similar ride called the Rotor. The floor dropped down, leaving you hanging in mid air as it spun around. YEEEEHAH!

One of the great sadnesses of my life is that, by the time I was tall enough to actually ride the Rotor, it was gone. And it should be noted - the biggest reason they didn't let little kids on the Rotor was that they didn't have the mass to stick to the sides. When one did manage to sneak on, they'd slowly slide about three feet downwards....so imagine what would happen to a one year old on a spinning ride!

On the other hand, Kennywood now has the Exterminator. Any rollercoaster that mostly takes place in the dark is a good roller coaster.

[Andara Bledin]

The kind of ride that you described was called "The Rotor" at Hersheypark.

Actually the Gravitron and the Rotor (and similar) are two different rides.

The Gravitron has sloped sides with sliding palets that you lean against. When the operator makes it go faster, the pallets slide up and bump against the ceiling stop. Then the operator slows it down till all of the pallets slip back down. I have fun on those, but they were more fun when I was lighter. I could do weird positions and I'd stay against the pallet better.

The Rotor style rides are primarily a large cylinder with a door in the upper portion and another in the lower portion. Riders stand around the outside of the barrel and the entire room starts rotating. When it gets fast enough, the operator drops the floor out, leaving the riders plastered to the wall. Eventually, the ride ends, and it slows to a stop, allowing the riders to slide down to the floor at varying speeds depending on their mass, where they exit through the second door once the ride has fully stopped. The floor is brought back up to the upper part of the ride to reset it for the next group.

I'm actually a much bigger fan of Rotors than Gravitrons.

^-.-^