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When were you last scared on a ride ?

This isn’t so much about myself being scared on a ride but certainly as a parent I do feel nervous sometimes for my kids riding a ride especially if they have only just scraped in over the height restriction. My daughter often jokes about me constantly trying to push her restraint down an extra click on rides that invert. Of course I know rationally that if they meet the height restriction they will be perfectly safe but I can’t help doing it. When we were riding Sik I found myself actually reaching across and holding on to her arm during the five rolls at the end. Anyone else find themselves doing this with their kids?
Yeah I get this, I felt similar when my family and I rode Iron Gwazi for the first time this summer. It was my youngest daughters first coaster with inversions and my eldest has only done Python at Efteling as far as inversions go which is tame in comparison. Youngest was just over the height requirement so rationally I knew she would be safe, but as parents I think we’re always going to have slight worries about things like this. I just have to tell myself that probably thousands of kids around their height have ridden it previously and been completely fine.

My main worry was that my youngest, being only 8, would find it absolutely terrifying and would come off having hated the experience. Fortunately that wasn’t the case, she was sat behind me with her dad and on the brake run I turned around and she had a huge smile on her face, it turned out to be her favourite ride of the whole trip. What a ride to experience your first inversions on! I’m not sure Mandrill Mayhem at Chessington will impress her now.
 
Not too much fazes me these days in terms of physical ride hardware. I can't think of the last time I was genuinely scared of a roller coaster, and I even love things like drop towers, for the most part.

In terms of actual ride hardware; the most scared I can remember having been by dry park ride hardware is Falcon's Fury at Busch Gardens Tampa. I love a good regular drop tower, but something about facing the ground on this one really got my anxiety pumping...

I'm also quite reluctant to do anything where I'm not strapped in reasonably securely, however. For instance, I'm quite reluctant to do something like a Skycoaster, or that SCAD tower where you literally just fling yourself down onto a mat.

Perhaps irreguarly for this thread, however, I'm a lot more easily triggered by psychological fear/horror. I know it's stupid, but if we make the jump to psychological fear rather than fear induced by physical ride hardware, then a lot more within dry theme parks scares me. Ghost trains, even the really low-budget ones, never fail to make me feel at least slightly unnerved, and most recently, I definitely found The Curse at Alton Manor at Alton Towers a touch on the overwhelming and unnerving side. The idea of going to a Halloween event or doing a scare maze does not appeal to me in the slightest, due to a combination of the above and a definite phobia of scare actors/costumed characters, and I have never done Ghost Train at Thorpe Park in any of its iterations or The Walking Dead at Thorpe Park post-zombification for similar reasons.

If we make the jump to waterparks, I have more ride hardware types that scare me. Big speed slides really get me anxious; I was shaking like a leaf before Summit Plummet at Disney's Blizzard Beach, and pushing myself off the edge was horrid, and I was also made incredibly anxious by Ihu's Breakaway Falls at Aquatica, a drop capsule slide. I was made so anxious by the capsule itself, and the feeling of not being able to breathe for a good few seconds after the drop due to being submerged by the water was horrible. This probably sounds completely irrational, but I also have an odd anxiety surrounding any waterpark attraction entailing deep water that I'm unable to stand in. I'm a reasonably strong swimmer (if I do say so myself), but I didn't do the Ohyah and Ohno drop slides at Volcano Bay because the idea of dropping into a 10ft pool made me really anxious. I was also somewhat unnerved by the 6ft+ deep pool whose name I can't remember at Volcano Bay (the one that overlooks Ko'okiri Body Plunge); I couldn't stay in there for very long, as even though I'm very able to swim, I was psychologically really put off by the water being deep enough that I would sink very far in it if I didn't tread water well enough...
 
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The first drop on the aptly named "Winja's Fear" at Phantasialand was one of the most terrifying moments on a coaster I can remember. Spoilers, as it's kind of a non-traditional coaster.

Your 4-person spinning coaster car (two people facing forward, two backwards) goes into an elevator which starts to climb up, while simultaneously tilting a bit disconcertingly. All in the dark. A door opens up when you get to the top and you are sitting at the top of a pretty steep section of coaster track. A second later the brakes release and you basically fall directly into the track. Without knowing what's going to happen--or, to be honest, even once you do know--it's a pretty magnificent thrill.

The scary part mentioned above also has the best timing for an on-ride photograph I've ever experienced. I haven't bought a ride picture in about 20 years but had to get this one because it caught me and my ride partner with looks of pure and total fear (ha ha) on our faces.
 
Without a doubt Apocolypse at Drayton Manor last year.

I used to ride it 3 or 4 times a day, every single day as I would drop in due to the park being on my cycle route. But after not riding it for a few years, the complacency worn off and it really did give me the fear factor back when riding it last year. No other ride has ever scared me as much as the fifth element shoot did on that ride.
 
I did the star flyer in Orlando which I think is the tallest in the world and genuinely didn’t have an ounce of unease which is unusual as I’m normally quite scared by heights, that said it may have had something to do with the fact I’d had several beers before riding it

I’ve done the main drop slide at Volcano Bay which scares me a bit, particularly as when you’re in the capsule waiting for the floor to open they have a beating noise building up the tension!

The other time I’ve been genuinely scared was on Dr Doom’s Dear Fall at IOA when the ride op had a confused look on her face and started messing with the restraint, assume it was her idea of amusement but it scared the shit out of me as the pre-show element of the ride started just afterward!
 
The other time I’ve been genuinely scared was on Dr Doom’s Dear Fall at IOA when the ride op had a confused look on her face and started messing with the restraint, assume it was her idea of amusement but it scared the shit out of me as the pre-show element of the ride started just afterward!
Will second Dr Doom. Just something about the double tower looming over the park and the sound of the launch.

We found the courage to finally ride, bricking ourselves before realising it was absolutely fine and running round to do it again.

The second ride, the restraint popped as it reached the top and gave me extra airtime which immediately brought the fear back…
 
Rita & Stealth, every single damn time. Launch coasters scare the heck out of me. It's entirely the anticipation of the launch, everything else after that is absolutely fine and I've done these rides dozens of times, but nothing has my heart spiking into "Peak" like waiting for that damn launch... followed by lots of expletives.
 
Rita & Stealth, every single damn time. Launch coasters scare the heck out of me. It's entirely the anticipation of the launch, everything else after that is absolutely fine and I've done these rides dozens of times, but nothing has my heart spiking into "Peak" like waiting for that damn launch... followed by lots of expletives.

So glad I’m not the only one.
The waiting….horrendous
Then the 2 seconds of acceleration, I just can’t get used to that feeling.
 
Riding RAGE at Adventure Island (Southend) for the first time recently (shortly after it had got stuck on the vertical incline).

It was actually very comfortable going up so getting stuck like that would be fine (other than adverse weather) but it was my first beyond vertical drop so wasn't sure how intense it was going to be.

Also this year rode Superman at 6 Flags America which was by far the tallest rollercoaster i've been on and the fact you only had lap restraints was a surprise. Wasn't scared of falling out or anything silly but there's still that moment of doubt as you go over the first hill :D
 
Riding RAGE at Adventure Island (Southend) for the first time recently (shortly after it had got stuck on the vertical incline).

It was actually very comfortable going up so getting stuck like that would be fine (other than adverse weather) but it was my first beyond vertical drop so wasn't sure how intense it was going to be.

Also this year rode Superman at 6 Flags America which was by far the tallest rollercoaster i've been on and the fact you only had lap restraints was a surprise. Wasn't scared of falling out or anything silly but there's still that moment of doubt as you go over the first hill :D
Rage was my first vertical lift hill and beyond vertical drop too!
 
Being tilted face down on Falcon’s Fury and feeling like you’re slowly slipping forward on your seat at that height is probably the scariest thing I’ve done in recent times.

That being said, I’ve never done a slingshot or Skycoaster, and I hate most ferris wheels (any kind of open seating) and swing tower rides. I hate them all.

Weird that I’d do Falcon’s Fury, but not a stupid ferris wheel 🤣🤣
 
Being tilted face down on Falcon’s Fury and feeling like you’re slowly slipping forward on your seat at that height is probably the scariest thing I’ve done in recent times.

That being said, I’ve never done a slingshot or Skycoaster, and I hate most ferris wheels (any kind of open seating) and swing tower rides. I hate them all.

Weird that I’d do Falcon’s Fury, but not a stupid ferris wheel 🤣🤣
I'm the same mate, will ride a drop tower any day but don't ride Starflyers or Ferris wheels anymore. 😂
 
Being tilted face down on Falcon’s Fury and feeling like you’re slowly slipping forward on your seat at that height is probably the scariest thing I’ve done in recent times.
Falcon’s Fury was shut when I went to BGT last year, but @Rob, @John and I did Ikaros at Gröna Lund this summer and I fully agree that being suspended like a rag doll in that position so high up is absolutely terrifying! Strangely the stomach-lurching feeling of the drop itself is far less pronounced than a standard sit-down drop tower, but hurtling to the ground face first is one hell of a thrill!
 
Falcon’s Fury was shut when I went to BGT last year, but @Rob, @John and I did Ikaros at Gröna Lund this summer and I fully agree that being suspended like a rag doll in that position so high up is absolutely terrifying! Strangely the stomach-lurching feeling of the drop itself is far less pronounced than a standard sit-down drop tower, but hurtling to the ground face first is one hell of a thrill!
Absolutely terrifying the first time you do it, and always somewhat scary, but so very addictive as well!
 
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