Have you ever self-spited yourself out of a roller coaster?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Of all the things that can happen at a park, a spite is probably the most gutting. I'm sure we've all had an occasion where a ride has been closed for the day, or it's broken down, that means we haven't been able to ride it. But sometimes, some might voluntarily choose not to ride something for whatever reason. Whether it's through fear or just plainly forgetting it exists, we might sometimes choose not to go on a coaster. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know: have you ever self-spited yourself out of a major roller coaster? Have you ever voluntarily not ridden something for whatever reason?

For purposes of limitation, I'm going to keep this to relatively major attractions. There are a number of enthusiasts who often don't ride kiddie coasters (myself among them); if I were to include all of the kiddie coasters I've denied myself by choice over the years, this would be a long list!

If we're keeping it to more major coasters and excluding kiddie coasters, most of my examples are fairly historical now, but I have a few I could reel off! These are:

• Rock'n'Rollercoaster at Walt Disney Studios Park - This is probably my most significant one, and the only one I am yet to receive redemption on! When I was not quite 8, I went to Disneyland Paris, and I had the opportunity to make Rock'n'Rollercoaster my first ever inverting coaster. I was over 1.2m (but not yet tall enough for Space Mountain or Indiana Jones), and I'd never gone upside down before... but I chose not to ride it. Why, you might ask? Well, it was all because a boy from my primary school told me it gave him tummy ache... so I staunchly refused to ride it all trip on that basis alone! I'm still bitter with myself about this one 14 years on... I have provisional plans to return to DLP next year, and this is one of the attractions I care most about going on purely to avenge my 8 year old self! I don't even care if it's not that good; I just want to go on it to redeem my past self-spite!
• The Dragon at Legoland Windsor - It took me until I was 14 to ride this... because when I first went to Legoland at 6 years old, my sister and I both refused to ride it due to the perceived "scary" theming! I couldn't ride it on my second visit at 10 years old either, but I had a broken arm, so that was slightly more out of my control...
• Saw: The Ride at Thorpe Park - I did not go on Saw until my 3rd visit to Thorpe Park when I was 15. On my first and second visits in 2014 and 2015, respectively, my sister and I were still in the phase of being slightly fragile around any kind of vaguely "scary" theming. We pondered Saw on our second visit in May 2015, but we caught the restrictions board outside that said "Live or die... make your choice" on it and swiftly decided to live! I was also a bit too much of a law-abiding citizen to contravene the posted age restriction of 12... I visited in May and didn't turn 12 until July.
• Scorpion and Sand Serpent at Busch Gardens Tampa - On my first visit to Busch Gardens in 2016, I didn't ride either of these... because I quite literally forgot they even existed. No, I'm not joking; when we were in the park, I simply forgot they were there and forgot to ride them, meaning that I exited the park having missed 2 non-kiddie coasters purely due to my own actions! On my revisit in 2023, I made specific effort to ride them... and I'm glad I did given that Sand Serpent shut about 2 weeks later and Scorpion swiftly followed about a year after that!

In terms of non-coasters, the only thing I generally self-spite myself out of these days is anything involving live actors, particularly scare actors, due to a personal phobia of/aversion to scare actors. For this reason, I never did Derren Brown's Ghost Train, I have never ridden Nemesis Sub-Terra, I have never done a scare maze, and I also haven't done The Walking Dead: The Ride at Thorpe Park since they rethemed it (I got the cred in 2014 when it was X, so I'm slightly less bothered about this one than the ones listed above). Coasters-wise, I'm game for pretty much anything nowadays (kiddie coasters aside)!

But I'd be keen to know; have you ever self-spited yourself out of a major roller coaster? Or any other attraction, for that matter?

 

[rob666]

Good topic Matt.
One absolute nomination from me.

G force, Drayton.
The first rollercoaster I could have gone on, but just couldn't be bothered.
Queue too long.
Capacity so limited.
Track too short.
Life too short.
Looked shit.

Three chances to ride, never bothered due to the long slow queue in the sun.
Never regretted it either!

Oh, and of course...every bloody kiddie coaster I have come across since 1975...you bloody weirdos.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Never did Corkscrew as the only time I visited Alton Towers while it was still there I wasn't keen on inverting coasters. it was a school trip so I joined up with a group of fellow wusses in my year and did Squirrel Nutty, Swan Boats and the Log Flume instead.

Similarly I've only ever visited Disneyland Paris as a child and with my dad who never did big coasters. Even if I'd felt up to trying one once I was tall enough I'd never have done it on my own. So I have never been on (Hyper)Space Mountain or Indiana Jones.

Nowadays I'll go on pretty much anything. I was in two minds whether or not to bother with Condor at Walibi Holland as I knew it was sh*t and for some reason it had the longest queue in park. In the end I decided I wanted to see for myself just how bad it was. Now I know.

 

[Matt N]

Good topic Matt.
One absolute nomination from me.

G force, Drayton.
The first rollercoaster I could have gone on, but just couldn't be bothered.
Queue too long.
Capacity so limited.
Track too short.
Life too short.
Looked shit.

Three chances to ride, never bothered due to the long slow queue in the sun.
Never regretted it either!

I also never got to ride G Force, but unfortunately, my spite was not a voluntary self-spite like yours! I visited Drayton twice while it was operating, but:

• In 2008, I was unfortunately only 5 years old, and therefore was too short.
• When I returned in 2018, as a 15 year old who'd grown to around 5'8" and was now tall enough, it just had to be the year that the train broke and the ride spent much of the year SBNO!

Therefore, I never got to ride it! With the fact that it's now defunct in mind, its closure on my second visit in 2018 is probably still one of the worst spites I've ever had... I regret the fact I never got to ride it!

 

[sock]

I didn't ride G-force as a teenager becuase my classmates told me someone died on it and I believed them. I also didn't ride dragons fury at chessington as a kid because my dad made me scared of it on purpose so I wouldn't drag him on with me haha (I was too short to ride alone).

 

[John_P]

Usually had quite good luck until Six Flags America last month.

Figured get the SLC out the way and then move across the park to Ride Of Steel and Batwing.

Go towards the SLC until reaching a sign saying the area opens at 12pm. Back on ourselves passed Roar (which never opened), rode Fire Bird and The Wild One.

Headed back passed Ride Of Steel which had already suffered a breakdown. Joined the queue for Batwing only to watch it run one train and then breakdown for the day.

Waited for Ride Of Steel to reopen, sit in the train. Other restraints wouldn't release as the train wasn't parked correctly. Evacced off that, it never reopened.

Ride the fun Jokers Jinx and then the spinning coaster and the kiddie coaster (both awful). Head towards the SLC, stop in that area to look in the shop. Watch the SLC run and breakdown on the break run. They eventually get it back to the station but don't reopen it whilst its looked at. Then the storms come in and shut everything in the park.

So I managed 5/9 of the coasters at the park, and its closing in November.

Reckon if we'd entered the park and gone straight to Ride of Steel we'd have got that, and then been in the Batwing queue for the first train (would've spent 30 minutes stuck on it though). But then with the bad weather that came in not sure what of the other coasters I'd have ridden.

In the UK definitely The Ultimate, always said I'd do it next year.

 

[Rowe]

My brain isn't blorping on remembering coasters right now but I'm still sad I was too scared to go on the Haunted House (pre-Duel), Terror Tomb (pre-Tomb Blaster) and Phantom Fantasia (pre-BURNT TO THE GROUND).

 

[Poisson]

Took 9.5 years to get on Baron as we did the park in a different order and it died before we got to it. Finally rode it last year and it's a bit rubbish after all that.

Missed Roller Coaster at Southport. Showed no sign of operating, then came to life as we drove past on our way to some North Wales stuff.

We swapped the dates on Gulliver's Land and Twinlakes, meaning the Wacky Worm at Twinlakes was closed.

 

[Matt N]

I also forgot to add that I self-spited myself out of Space Mountain Omega at Magic Kingdom.

I rode the Alpha side on the first day we went, but we only revisited for an evening on our final day in Florida, and my parents refused to queue for the second side of Space Mountain when we’d done the first on our prior visit…

It also took me 2 additional years after riding Hungarian Horntail to get the Chinese Fireball side of Dragon Challenge at Islands of Adventure for similar reasons… I’m glad I made specific effort to ride Chinese Fireball in 2016 given that Dragon Challenge got removed a year later!

 

[John]

Easy way to do Omega is just to use FP/LL - they generally send main queue to the left and LL to the right, though it will vary a bit depending on LL allocation. I rode 3 times last weekend using main queue and was sent to Alpha each time.

Recently I can't think of many coasters I could have done but chose not to, other than a few very small kiddy coasters. Looking further back, there are several rides I wasn't brave enough to do on my first visit to a park but in almost all cases I would ride them on a later visit. Thunderlooper in 1995 is an exception - I don't think I was tall enough to ride anyway (my old park map says the height restriction was 1.4m) so I'm not really sure if it counts.

 

[Matt N]

Easy way to do Omega is just to use FP/LL - they generally send main queue to the left and LL to the right, though it will vary a bit depending on LL allocation. I rode 3 times last weekend using main queue and was sent to Alpha each time.

Do they not let you pick, then? I couldn’t remember whether they did or not (my last visit to MK was in 2019).

 

[John]

They might accept requests, I don't know. When I was there the staff at merge were standing a fair way back and seemed to be treating it as a crowd control exercise (complete with standard Disney two handed, two finger pointing), so there wasn't a clear opportunity to ask. If LL numbers are either very low or very high they might also need some people to cross over at merge, otherwise everyone just rides the side they entered.

 

[jon81uk]

Took me three trips to Blackpool (all aged over 18) before I rode the Big One. Yet I did everything at Alton Towers, it was just the height that put me off. Once done it was such a let down really!

 

[Ted]

Went to New York and Philadelphia in 2023 and did most parks there, but not all the creds

At Coney Island, Soarin' Eagle was initially closed but eventually did open. However after riding the volare at Sarkanniemi six weeks prior, there was no motivation to do another one and I don't regret it one bit

Did Hershey later in the trip. Did most creds but not Jolly Rancher or Wild Mouse as I couldn't be arsed, or Laff Trak as the queue was too long

 

[John_P]

Didn't ride Soarin' Eagle in 2019 as everyone else rode it whilst I was watching Liverpool win the Champions League and couldn't be bothered queueing on my own afterwards.

Rode it last month and it was bloody awful!

Managed to come across Jolly Rancher when it was half empty in the evening and then rode Laff Track and the wild mouse basically first thing the next day as was heading straight to the back of the park to ride everything I'd not gotten the previous evening.

Should probably include Thunder Looper at Alton Towers but we just never visited the park on family trips as we were very much Pleasure Beach and Camelot.