It’s one of the greatest sounds as you walk around a theme park. The roar of the roller coaster going by, and the screams of either fear or excitement as the riders have all the fun. I am a huge roller coaster fan. Some of the best coasters are next door in Ohio at a couple of my favorite coasters are at King’s Island and Cedar Point.
A few years back I went back to Holiday World. I hadn’t been there since I was a little kid. I mean it was still called Santa Claus Land. My son, who was probably only 8 at the time got lucky. He was tall enough to ride anything he wanted. As we walked into the park he was enamored with The Raven, a huge wooded coaster. It was voted one of the top wooden coasters in the world. So when he found out he could ride anything he said, let’s do that one. Now he had never been on a roller coaster before. So I asked several times before we got in line if he really wanted to. It was always a yes.
So we head to the line. About 10 minutes into waiting, I ask, “You good bud?” “Yep,” he tells me. We get close to getting on the coaster, again I ask, and he says he ready to go! We get in the car…”You good?” “Yep.”
We start to climb the first hill….click, click, click…”You good?” “Oh yeah, this is awesome!”
And then comes the first drop. My son, full of fear in his eyes, looks up at me and screams, “MAKE IT STOP!!!”
All I could do was tell him, “Close your eyes, it will be over in just a minute”
Needless to say, we didn’t do any other coasters that day. Instead we hit up the water park, and had a fantastic day.
That being said, can you really expect for people not to scream on a roller coaster? I don’t think so, but that is what they are trying in Japan…
Don’t think it’s going to work!
