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Fear on a Ride


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6 hours ago, ChessingtonSam said:

Gonna confess - the biggest ride I've ever been on is Dragon's Fury. That's why I tend to avoid speaking about the bigger rides.

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Nothing wrong with that.  I was into theme parks and interested in rides a loooong time before I was brave enough to go on anything big.  I was 18 before I went on Vampire at Chessie.  I remember following the construction of Colossus and being excited for when it opened - only to stand there for 2 hours holding my sisters bags while she rode.

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  • 2 weeks later...
8 hours ago, ChessingtonSam said:

Going to Chessie today and going on Rameses Revenge (hopefully) - there was a time when I would have said that and then not done it once we got there but I think that's passed now.

You can do it! - It looks scarier than it actually is - make sure you sit in the front row!

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Best to leave it on your shoulders really.

 

(just sit normally, with your back up straight and head against the headrest, as the restraints come down. Do not pull the restraint too close to you as that can get uncomfortable. After that you can move around as much as the restraints allow, but you'll want to brace yourself to an extent to stop your bead bouncing of the restraints with lateral movement)

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Interesting input to this thread, so here's my tuppenceworth.

All rides are safe, they would not be there otherwise, they are all maintained to a very high standard. We are all physically and mentally different, so the effects we anticipate and those we feel will be different too.

Try to watch each ride before using it, and try to understand the forces that make it work and the directions and forces that will work on you. Once in your seat and harness, you cannot go anywhere, not at all, but try to leave a bit of "expansion" room around you, otherwise, like Han, you'll suffer a bit. No height problem, as the ride is only as high as your bottom is on the seat, and everything is fixed to the next bit.

Your first ride on any item is a discovery of those effects, and how you feel with it, and after that you can experiment with your position within the seat and harness, how you position your head, and what you try to view on the way round. Don't treat the stop as an end, but as part of the ride, it has effects too.

The lift hills worry some but part of that is the noise of the safety devices, adding to the build-up. Always keep your head back until the ride is fully running, and concentrate on the launch/start as if you miss that, it might hurt. Try to feel the parts of a ride that you can use to either float or tense up on. 

Enjoy the ride and then you can tell your mates about it.

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On 31 May 2016 at 3:59 PM, planenut said:

Try to watch each ride before using it, and try to understand the forces that make it work and the directions and forces that will work on you. 

I made the mistake of not watching a ride I wasn't sure about going on. I must've been 9/10 and there was a ride at a local fair (I think it was called Body Count; loads of fairs have them) that I thought looked fun because it had OTS restraints and I'd never ridden a ride with those sort of restraints before. 

The ride was hell! I was screaming my lungs out the entire way through. My legs were also being pressed against the back of the seat very very hard. It was extremely uncomfortable. The worst part about it was that I found out later I wasn't actually tall enough! The measuring stick was tilted in a way so it looks like your taller than you actually are! I was at least 4-5cm of the 1.4 restriction. That pretty much stopped me from going on anything thrilling until I went on Inferno the year after and loved it! 

I learnt two lessons from that experience. Firstly, fun fairs aren't very safe. It's a surprise that with health and safety putting in place lots of over the top measures that lots of these fairs get shut too. More importantly however, watch the ride you are about to go on! If you aren't comfortable going on after watching it, don't do it! If you feel your up to it, go for it. But make sure you are absolutely certain about it :D ! 

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14 hours ago, Morgan.B said:

I actually oppose to this- I had never seen Vampire before I went on it and it proved that, as long as you're in the right frame of mind, you can ride anything!

I do understand what you mean, but the Vampire ride is what I call a "pendulum ride"; all the forces work in the same way therefore inducing only one type of pressure.

I have heard a lot of people stating, once they were strapped in, that they thought they were queuing for a different ride. I know it's only my opinion but I think it better to watch a ride before riding it.

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23 hours ago, MilesK said:

Firstly, fun fairs aren't very safe. It's a surprise that with health and safety putting in place lots of over the top measures that lots of these fairs get shut two.

Sorry, but that is rubbish. Funfairs are every bit as safe as theme parks. Incidents and errors happen at both, but the checks on travelling fairs are just as sttingent as those at fixed locations, and on top of that as they are dismantled and reassembled very frequently they actually get much more thorough visual checks than the parks rides which remain built all season long with lots of areas not able to be visually inspected.

 

Don't fear the funfair. Visit it, support it, and enjoy it.

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Visited my local funfair today. There was a mach five which we rode. While at the top (when the bottom was loading) my friend was absolutely bricking it. He was shaking and wanted to get down - which is hard 100 or so feet in the air. 

He never looked at the ride before hand and went straight on, I believe this to be the reason for his fear. 

So, look at the ride before you join the queue. Understand the ride and you don't fear it anymore.

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On 30 May 2016 at 11:33 PM, ChessingtonSam said:

Rameses broke down just as I got to the queue and pretty much stayed broken for the rest of the day :angry::angry::angry:

Ugh that's damned typical - but.....you at least got to the queue so that's a start and next time hopefully it won't break down.

 

Some really great advice given here covering pretty much every aspect which one can encounter when trying a ride for the first time (or facing fears on rides).  I like to try things once, if I don't like it then at least I've given it a shot but I do appreciate it can be nerve wracking - it wasn't until 2013 that I started going on proper big rides and even then I did rides gradually - wasn't until the last day of the season that I rode Vortex yet had done all of the coasters at TP.  There are only 2 rides I've ridden which I don't think I could ride again but still glad I got the experience.

 

My niece had her first ride on Samurai today - this time last year she was very scared of rides (although much much better than I was at her age)!  I know with my niece she finds it helpful to explain how different rides feel before riding them and I am always honest with her (hence probably why she hasn't done Detonator yet oohps).

 

I do agree about watching a ride before going on it - although I think if I had seen the layout of Space Mountain before I went on it 16 years ago I would have wussed out.  You can get a good generally idea of a ride by watching it and watching people's reactions.  The only exceptions to that which I can think of are Slammer and Detty - for me personally, Slammer looks absolutely terrifying to watch (and took me 18 months to conquer) but is actually ok once you are on it. Then you have Detty which doesn't look that high or intense until you ride it.

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40 minutes ago, Han30 said:

 You can get a good generally idea of a ride by watching it and watching people's reactions.  Then you have Detty which doesn't look that high or intense until you ride it.

So true Han with watching people's reaction; for those fearing Stealth I tell them to watch the face of the people getting off it. I estimate 1/500 doesn't enjoy it.

 

Detonator has a 115' drop; Apocalypse at Drayton Manor has 177', with a choice of sitting, standing, or floorless, a great freefall.

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  • 1 month later...

Went on Thirteen today - was going to go on Smiler but the ride access pass time thing was at 6pm so we couldnt, was going to join the Oblivion queue but me and my dad both got scared lol, plus I felt a bit sick after going on Spinball Whizzer straight after eating doughnuts. Oh well, back on Friday. 

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23 minutes ago, Equoaster said:

Beware, your opinion of Chessington will change after a successful visit to Alton Towers <_<

If you mean in terms of favourite park Towers is already my favourite lol, it's just that Chessington is closer and it has Vampy and Dragons Fury there :wub:

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I went on Galactica without VR twice today and loved it didn't have time to go on anything else unfortunately but we'll be going back to Alton Towers in September anyway and will probably end up going to Thorpe Park soon. Staff were great, one in particular who basically told me everything would be fine and it wouldn't be scary. Then when I got on the second time he laughed and said "I told you you'd love it!". I was bricking it at first before going into the flying position, I was basically screaming to get off lol.

 

(EDIT) @Equoaster Does Galactica count lol? Didn't want to do Nemesis or Rita (too intense) and Smiler's vertical lift is what put me off.

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19 minutes ago, ThemeParkCrafter said:

Rita is not intense, just uncomfortable. Wierd my fear is inversions not speed/ height so I am ok to ride stealth/ rita.

I think I'm scared because I'm pretty sure I am more sensitive to that sort of thing. I found Thirteen's launch into the station almost intense today lol. I also found the long inverted section after the fly to lie on Galactica quite intense.

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