Coney Island. The Cyclone about 40 years ago. My brother, his wife, me and mine are in the second and third cars going around the first high speed left turn when something flies past us. Lady in the first car is screaming and trying to cover her weirdly pinned head. Her date looked absolutely stunned when he saw her. Circling down, we could see her wig stuck way up there.
Coney again, same era. We got on line for the bumper cars. The full complement of cars took off with the starting bell. Immediately, a young woman was bumped into the boards right in front of us. She could not work her way out of there with the waiting line laughing harder and harder, with some giving advice that didn’t help. Finally, her car swung out into the track and she was immediately and hilariously knocked back into the exact same spot, closing bell mercifully ringing shortly after.
A friend and I worked at Frontier Village one summer. We hired on at the same time; I ended up in the food service department and he lucked out and got to be a ride operator. I languished in the saloon as a bus boy and he ran the Ferris wheel and got promoted to “Casey Jones”, the train engineer.
I did have one shining moment though, when the gunfight actors recruited me to stand up to the bad guy who was raising hell in the saloon. After a few lines about outlaws not being allowed in the place, I grabbed him by the collar and gave him the bum’s rush out the swinging doors into the street where the sheriff was waiting. Afterwards the actors told me I had done a great job and said maybe I should think about joining the gunfight re-enactment crew.
That was not to be as I had other plans in the fall. But for a brief moment I got to bask in the fake western spotlight.
I’m sure you are right, I’ve never had the misfortune of stepping into Florida. There is probably a whole lot more there.
Disneyland must have just had a bunch of underground networks instead of a planned world because it was the first. I knew where to look through to see different parts of the parade costumes (the nutcracker costumes stood in rows like terracotta soldiers) on the train ride -just after the T-Rex and Stegosaurus battle. Mom always wanted to sit in Fantasy Land and rest with a drink while watching the bandstand rise from the ground. I didn’t want to watch the band, I wanted to watch the magic Ice Cream elevator at the back of the cafe instead.
All of those memories were before Walt Disney died. I cried my eyes out over that because I knew that Disneyland would be burnt down.
Disneyland does have a lot of underground areas, they just aren’t networked the way Disney World is. Tomorrowland has a lot of office space beneath it and much of the ride infrastructure in New Orleans Square is underground. Main Street supposedly has a basement that vehicles can drive through.
A few years back Kid Cheesesteak earned a free pass to Six Flags Great Adventure (NJ) for some reading thing in 4th grade, so I took him over the summer. Talking with the guys from work they gave me this advice, so I figured let’s go straight to El Toro, KC is tall enough to ride, and it’s one of the main coasters in the park.
KC is nervous after we put all our things in a locker (no loose ANYTHING on El Toro) but I sally forth with him. He’s very nervous as we’re going up, and up, and up but I remind him that this other coaster over there is WAY taller (yeah, that’s the tallest coaster in the world). We hit the drop, one of the steepest and tallest in the world for a wooden coaster, hit 70mph, and he’s screaming his head off. Not in a fun way, not at all in a fun way. 4,400 feet later, he stops screaming, and informs me that he will never ride another roller coaster for the rest of his life.
Most of my good parenting stories are when I was a terrible parent.
My husband always tells the story of how he made one of his kids go on a ride, although the kid was scared. Just before the ride began, the kid looked my husband in the eye and said, “You didn’t have to do this.” Both of them were scarred for life!
When my kids were little, my daughter needed someone to ride the skycoaster with her. I had heard people talking about how disappointed they were that the skycoaster was booked up for the day.
So, I told my daughter I’d be happy to ride with her. She was thrilled, and her friends were impressed. We went to the ticket window and were told there were no open spots for the day.
There is a Six Flags not that far from us (30+ miles). I’ve been there twice. Once, my company rented out the entire place for an evening - though a number of attractions were not running (and it was too bloody cold to go in the water park part).
The other time was a weekend day. The company had not rented the whole place, but did give out tickets, and had a picnic pavilion for us. BUT, the place was having major power problems - to the point where almost no rides were running, and they actually started giving paying customers refunds (we might have been entitled, but did not bother). One of the things that WAS running was something like that skycoaster. My daughter was interested - so I ponied up the money for us to ride it. I was not overly disappointed when they decided it couldn’t run either and gave us our money back.
The one couple we saw who DID ride it was a young man and woman. I remember “EEEEEEEEEEEEEE I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU” in varying volumes as they swung back and forth.
Having now had two bad experiences at Six Flags, I’ve stuck with Hersheypark instead ever since then.
My daughter’s high school chorus was asked to perform at Six Flags New England. Most of the kids brought lunches. The guards there insisted they not bring them into the park. Since the bus had left them off and gone to the bus parking area, they couldn’t put them back, so everything was thrown out. Some kids didn’t have any money, but that didn’t matter to the guards. They had no problem with the kids starving until they got home.
There was also a scandal where Six Flags New England asked the town board to ban walking to the park. People would set up parking on their lawns for people who didn’t want to pay exorbitant parking fees. There was an uproar and a couple of board members lost their election. The law was repealed.
There was a successful amusement park near Lake George called the Great Escape. Six Flags bought it. It used to have picnic areas where you could bring a lunch. No more. It used to have free parking. Not after Six Flags.
They are set up to milk your cash out of you. Disney does too to some extent, but they respect their customers and try to delight you with unexpected surprises. Six Flags takes your money and treats you contemptibly.
Once at Six Flags Great America myself, my brother, and my two sons went on the “Shockwave” roller coaster. My youngest boy realized he was going to be sick and he clasped his hand over his mouth and pinched his nose shut.
His older brother thought it was a gross out laugh riot watching vomit come out of his ear. Their Uncle and I were not amused. But both my sons still tell the story with smiles.
My high school marching band got to march in the Rose Bowl parade (any other '72 Red Raiders here?), then we got to play Disneyland.
March up Main Street and make a loop around the different Lands, play a few tunes near the entrance and… we were done for the day. So we got to go on rides. In our heavy wool uniforms.
…oh, sorry, just realized my stories from that trip really wouldn’t be amusing to anyone else… well, assume I’m just bragging, then.
I remember a trip to Kings Island many years ago where the park was weirdly low on guests, at least in the early going. I always suspected that it was a combination of somewhat crummy weather and the fact that it was the week before school was going to start (which, assuming that my school system wasn’t the first in the country to get going, would mean that a lot of kids would already be in school and therefore unavailable to go). The Vortex was the park’s top coaster at the time, and I remember being able to ride it, like, six times in rapid succession, limited only by how fast I could run from the exit to the boarding area. You wish all your visits could be like that, you know?
When I was a kid, anytime a ride was closed/removed it created all kinds of speculation and stories about someone being killed on the ride.
I remember one year when The Caterpillar was closed for some reason and everyone knew it was because the cover had closed and dropped a nest of copperheads on the riders.
Seen at ValleyFair, the Amusement / Water Park in the Twin Cities, had a season pass for about 10 years until COVID started.
Teenager in a rather skimpy bikini standing in the wave pool. Every time a wave hit she’d have to adjust her top and bottom to make sure they stayed on. By the time she finished the next wave would hit.
Three teenagers in heels, nice dresses, sashes, hair in bows, ribbons, and braids, full complement of makeup and jewelry. A boy and another girl with them were dressed more like what you’d expect.
Diabetic girl about 12 with her insulin pump, the pump was clipped to her belt and the infusion site was visible on her stomach- she was wearing a crop top. A young kid breaks away from his parents, runs up, and yanks on the tubing (although doesn’t manage to pull it out).
Teenage boy in line suddenly says “Oh, I gotta poop” He and his friends run away leaving splashes of liquid poop on the pavement.
Younger teenage girl with her arms and thighs full of obvious self-harm scars and cutting marks in various stages of healing.
Lots of kids talking back and mouthing off to their parents, and their parents tolerating it.
