The theme park wear and tear thread..

[Manchester1894]

This might just attract the over 40's

But this topic is about the the downside of the theme park.. the wear and tear...
Endless standing, sometimes for days and even weeks in places like Disney and Universal.. do you look on in both envy and disgust as someone trundles along a queue line on a retractable stool? Do you have to take extreme measures to cope with your theme park hobby? Do you have a favourable limit and an absolute limit of how many consecutive days you can handle?
And then there is the aftermath.. stinking shoes in the family or shared bedroom. Physio appointments for aches and pains. Or even just the basic things like blisters, or rashes (from water rides) , to packing tablets for headaches etc.

Personally, I find 2 days is the sweet spot. I've done 3-5 before and been ready to come home and rest I'm under physio for 2 back niggles and 1 shoulder injury. That started last year right as our family bought a MAP. It's improving now but went to Spain for 4 days a fortnight ago and was dreading queues. I've spent £150 on a pair of cloudtilts as my feet hurt in casual trainers too much. They sailed through 3 long days at PA and I've put them back in the box to save them for 9 days in Germany later this year. How people do 1 day in converse to me is a miracle.
We pack painkillers, and a shoe spray too for our trips

Had an ankle roll coming off tidal wave and genuinely thought I'd broken it. Swelled up and was quite painful, thankfully just a bad twist and scanned ok.

I'm sure there are a lot of stories out there and would love to hear them.

 

[rob666]

Old age coaster rider here...

Only once did I dislocate an elbow on the Big Dipper.
Ouch, just resting my arm on the top edge of the seat, one bump, and ow...agony until back in the station, reset in the seat with a minor scream.
Double jointed, been there before, but never on a coaster.

From yesterdays experience, I find about two hours the perfect sweetspot!
Early morning gardening work, then off to the Beach by late morning.
What queues?
Two coasters, wood and steel...typical.
Walk on and a one train wait.
Small beer.
Chips.
Chat with bar staff.
Single figure eight loop round the park.
Fifty yard walk back to the free two hour parking space between the Beach and Spoons, planned to shift the car to more free parking, but I had happily had enough.
Home for a nice afternoon nap before the good lady gets home.
This is old age coastering.
Blissful day overall, even had all the gears in the Volvo.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

How timely that this thread has appeared. Just as Katie Price has announced that she may need a mobility scooter to help her navigate around Alton Towers.

Katie Price 'may need a mobility scooter' as she struggles at Alton Towers

Katie Price is contemplating buying a pink scooter due to an ongoing health battle

www.stokesentinel.co.uk

I was wondering where I could shoehorn this tedious link of an article, if ever I'd seen one, so thank you!

 

[MellowPasta]

I remember going a few times as a kid with my friend and his mum. Lovely woman but the amount of times we’d have to stop so she could sit and have a cigarette and a hot drink… I understand her now (minus the cigarette. I think of her when I see kids trying to bomb it down Towers Street but being told to wait.

My big toenail came off from my last visit, all the walking caused blood under the nail and it eventually went black and died roll on the Sky Ride.

 

[Bowser]

One of the small benefits of my son’s disability is getting to use RAP queues as I definitely couldn’t handle the queues otherwise. The rare trips I’ve made without him I’ve either got a fast pass or ensured it’s quiet so I can avoid lengthy queues. Spine and bladder have their limits.

Though even that benefit is balanced out by often having to chase him, carry him or repeatedly re-ride Rage. And doing all the driving after.

Our longest trip so far was 3 days at Efteling, though two were half days. That definitely seems to be our limit, I couldn’t conceive of these 2 week Florida trips people do! Europa is on the cards but I think we’d have a “break” day at Rulantica.

Getting to the point where we have to rotate or avoid some of the rougher rides as feel on the brink of reinjuring my back. Fortunately as I’m in control of where we go we can generally stick to the smoother rides and parks.

 

[Manchester1894]

I remember going a few times as a kid with my friend and his mum. Lovely woman but the amount of times we’d have to stop so she could sit and have a cigarette and a hot drink… I understand her now (minus the cigarette. I think of her when I see kids trying to bomb it down Towers Street but being told to wait.

My big toenail came off from my last visit, all the walking caused blood under the nail and it eventually went black and died roll on the Sky Ride.

Good grief

One of the small benefits of my son’s disability is getting to use RAP queues as I definitely couldn’t handle the queues otherwise. The rare trips I’ve made without him I’ve either got a fast pass or ensured it’s quiet so I can avoid lengthy queues. Spine and bladder have their limits.

Though even that benefit is balanced out by often having to chase him, carry him or repeatedly re-ride Rage. And doing all the driving after.

Our longest trip so far was 3 days at Efteling, though two were half days. That definitely seems to be our limit, I couldn’t conceive of these 2 week Florida trips people do! Europa is on the cards but I think we’d have a “break” day at Rulantica.

Getting to the point where we have to rotate or avoid some of the rougher rides as feel on the brink of reinjuring my back. Fortunately as I’m in control of where we go we can generally stick to the smoother rides and parks.

Got 2 days at Phantasialand in August, 1 day train travel to Europa, 2 days EP. 1 day of Rulantica, 2 more EP days then home.. the travel day and Rulantica meant to be buffers but could easily make us more tired. It's 9 days away with 7 days committed to being busy.

Florida might be calling if I can get past this one.

 

[GaryH]

It was Scarefest when the mazes were to the side of the hotels which used to kill me. My back would be in agony by the end of the night. Theme park back I used to call it when you sit in your car at the end of a really long day and your lower back hurts so much that you just laugh.

That was many years ago when I was younger and fitter. Now I just buy fast pass for everything so I don’t spend so long in the day standing !

 

[Llama]

I started walking pretty regularly and try to get 10,000 steps per day normally which makes theme park visits a bit easier, though still difficult. A normal day at a park always ends up somewhere very close to 23,000 steps which is quite a bit even if I'm doing 10k regularly. I'm not quite 40 but quite nearly there and my tricks to getting through a few days at a park are things I would have considered heinous, time-wasting crimes as a kid: "taking time to just sit down and relax (and have a drink)" and the even more controversial "mid-day nap".

At Europa Park the 8 or 9-hour days are generally pretty easy but I visited Disneyland a year ago and they're open for a full 13. By about 4pm on the second day I was dead tired and had to admit defeat and retreat to the hotel for an hour or so. "Wasting time" like this would have been unthinkable to younger me but it was actually a great decision, we changed socks and recharged and made it to park closing easily.

 

[rob666]

Midday naps are only controversial if you are driving.

 

[Manchester1894]

My most used phrase after day 2 in a park is "the dogs are barking" . My wife usually checks her step counter too. Far too many zeros on there for my liking