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What ride/attraction(s) started your obsession with Theme Parks?

Benjsh

TS Member
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Steel Vengeance
I have a few that immediately spring to mind.

1. Alien Encounter. I visited Florida for the first time in 1996 and got to experience this attraction twice on the trip. It's still hands down the most terrifying (but in a good way) experience I have had in any attraction. I was 11 at the time but saw grown men come out of that building in a sweat.

2. Tower of Terror @ Camelot. This was one of my local parks growing up and we used to go 8-10 times a year as kids. I literally used to sit on TOT for hours on end when possible. Brilliant coaster for its time. Schwarzkopf classic.

3. Nemmy. Maybe an obvious and boring choice but I couldn't leave it out. This ride changed everything for me. I rode it in its very first season in 94 and still love it as much today. Still the best ride at the park which is quite something. How many coasters that old can make that claim across the world? Technology has moved on and still nothing has beat it at the park for me.
 
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Great thread idea @Benjsh! For me, it actually has to be The Smiler! Seeing the construction site in June 2012 really piqued my interest, so I occasionally followed the construction and the late stages of the coaster's development, which set me down the path I'm on today!
 
Great thread idea @Benjsh! For me, it actually has to be The Smiler! Seeing the construction site in June 2012 really piqued my interest, so I occasionally followed the construction and the late stages of the coaster's development, which set me down the path I'm on today!

That makes me feel so old. Hahaha.

I rode Smiler on Day two of its operation. The queue was about 3 hrs long and we walked into the single rider queue and got on within 10 mins. So many people looked cheesed off.
 
Vampire - probably my first proper coaster, loved the music, original trains and general atmosphere in the area. The station used to scare the crap out of me as a kid.

Colossus - visited Thorpe and Chessington regularly as a child, both of which lacked the thrill rides of Alton Towers. Then the Colossus construction fences went up, along with the scaled down model of the coaster and I was fascinated from there.

Thinking about it - overall it was definitely the well themed attractions that interested me as a yoof. It's what made Alton Towers in particular so special in the 90's/early 00's.
 
For me, as from a very young age I loved fairground rides.

Some of my young memories of parks and piers were the following

1. No ride in particular - PeterPan Southend (now known as Adventure Island), First visited in the Early 70's

2. The Snails ride - Great Yarmouth at Joyland and Pleasure Beach, First Visited in the early 70's

3. Roller Ghoster - Walton on the Naze Pier, First Visited in the early 70's

For Theme parks

1. Looping Star - Bembom Brothers, Dream Land, Margate. This was my first steel and upside down coaster. I first visited the place in summer 1986

2. Black Hole - Alton Towers. I first visited the place in autumn 1987 and I fell in love with the place. There were more to Alton than just rides. Still love Alton Towers today. It just a shame that it now has lost it's charm.
 
Furious Baco started my passion for coasters. I agreed to queue with my friends, despite being a total rollercoaster wuss, as I didn't want to stand alone. At the platform me and another friend were to pass through the station to the exit without riding.

I'd admired the themeing angle for a few years, but as I get sick on anything that spins, and was terrified of the tall or upsidedowny ones it was difficult to really hold a passion for theme parks.

When I reached the platform I said "I've waited, I'm getting on!" And with that moment of bravery I had a fantastic ride. It was the end of the day and I went home proud I'd braved a big one! I was bitten by the coaster bug.

Next time I was at towers I went on air first, a coaster I turly love. I then progressed to ride everything at the park. I started reading about how the coasters work, why they do things certain ways, and later how the parks operate. I found the forum and lurked. For years. Learning something new everyday as my passion grew.

I've become more of a general thrill seeker now, looking to be scared by anything like I was when I sat down on furious Baco that day. I've never been back to portaventura either, but hoping to go in the next year or so.
 
It was a film really what really got me into it: The '77 film Rollercoaster. But a ride on my first major coaster properly ignited my passion and that was Corky. :)
 
Half a century ago, if I was good at our little rented summer chalet on the beach at Ainsdale, I was allowed on the Cyclone at Southport Pleasureland with my much older siblings.
I found it very hard to be good all flipping day...still do.
But it was worth it.
The perfect introductory woodie, with a great view straight out to sea.
Built my first plasticine model of the rides in the fun house by the age of about six...kept it for years.
Knew it was going to be an obsessive issue by the age of about seven.
By the age of nine I could drag rollercoasters into any school lesson, and did, often.
Edit...due to autocucumber
 
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Half a century ago, if I was good at our little rented summer chalet on the beach at Ainsdale, I was allowed on the Cyclone at Southport Pleasureland with my much older siblings.
I found it very hard to be good all flipping day...still do.
But it was worth it.
The perfect introductory woodie, with a great view straight out to sea.
Built my first plastic one model of the rides in the fun house by the age of about six...kept it for years.
Knew it was going to be an obsessive issue by the age of about seven.
By the age of nine I could drag rollercoasters into any school lesson, and did, often.

Many happy memories on Cyclone. Also a particularly bad one where I was stung by a wasp in the tunnel bit. There was a nest inside and the whole ride got closed down because of me (kind of)
 
Good question!

When I was younger I loved any visits that we had to the likes of Paultons Park or Gulliver's Kingdom however I was never that keen on what at the time looked like the bigger rides or the coasters (which now I know are tiny kids creds)! Log Flumes were always a firm favourite and the first ride of any visit.

Then on a school trip to Drayton Manor in 2004 I decided to take the plunge and ride my first ever looping coaster; Klonedike Gold Mine. And it turns out that the loop wasn't so bad!

Later that year, and partly inspired by my new interest in theme parks, we had our first family day out to Alton Towers. This was mainly spent riding the family rides, well to be honest I cannot remember much of the day at all. However I do remember spending the whole day contemplating whether or not to ride Air. I had never been to a theme park before with such big and impressive coasters, and Air seemed like a huge step up from Klondike at Drayton. We were standing at the bottom of Towers Street thinking about heading off home, and then I decided that I would go on Air. So me and my Dad headed back to Forbidden Valley whilst my Mum took my brother on some of the smaller rides. I queued for about an hour on my own and absolutely loved it! That I believe is what got me hooked.

Then going on my first TowersStreet (TowersTimes at the time) meet in 2008 for Corkscrew's last ever day of operation really changed my entire life!
 
It was Vampire at Chessington. I technically first visited the park in 1998 but I didn't ride it, a few years later in 2003 I rode it for the first time and loved it but frequent visits in 2004 and 2005 made me appreciate how much of a great atmosphere the ride offered and made me fall in love with theme parks.
 
Not entirely sure I can put my finger on the exact ride(s) or theme parks that really started it, but it was Thirteen's construction that drew me into the forums; causing vast quantities of my bank account to be spent on annual passes, hotel stays, flights, hire cars and copious amounts of booze years later.
 
Playing RCT2 as a kid sparked my obsession, though I wouldn't dare ride any large coaster until I went to Disney World in 2007.

As for here, it was The Smiler that brought me here after looking up SW7 back in 2012, though I didn't make an account until 2015!
 
Pirate adventure was my earliest proper memory but my parents used to take me to gullivers in Matlock and butlins too.
I was too scared of getting sick on coasters until my partner took me to Alton towers in 2017 and Th13teen got me hooked.
So I’m well late to the party but not looking back. Excited for my first trip outside the UK in a couple of weeks.
 
Pirate adventure was my earliest proper memory but my parents used to take me to gullivers in Matlock and butlins too.
I was too scared of getting sick on coasters until my partner took me to Alton towers in 2017 and Th13teen got me hooked.
So I’m well late to the party but not looking back. Excited for my first trip outside the UK in a couple of weeks.

Pirate Adventure was close to making my list too. It was an outstanding dark ride in it's day before it started to rot. Such a shame it couldn't be saved as boy couldn't Drayton do with it now. :(
 
Used to be yearly trips to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and a few trips a year to Camelot. Apparently on one visit I just stayed on the tower of terror for about an hour and went round and round.
 
Used to be yearly trips to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and a few trips a year to Camelot. Apparently on one visit I just stayed on the tower of terror for about an hour and went round and round.

Do you remember Venom and The Rack?
 
Do you remember Venom and The Rack?

When I used to visit Venom was indoors and called The Beast, don't think I visited after about the mid 90s until I visited in 2010 to get on Knightmare and see the park one last time before they went out of business. It just seemed so small from what I remembered.
 
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