# This Just In! Thrill rides scary, don't slaughter park guests **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 10, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357 "2003-07-10T00:19:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357/1 "2003-07-10T00:19:30Z")
[Mother, daughter find Kennywood ride less than amusing](http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030707kennywood0706p5.asp) > [@](#): > > Michelle D’Ambrosio accompanied her daughter and two other 10-year-old girls on the thrill ride on June 24. All of the riders had been strapped into their seats when Chelsey decided she didn’t want to ride. > > “The attendant wouldn’t let her get off, though we were still on the ground,” D’Ambrosio said. “She panicked and unhooked a safety belt. I was screaming at the ride attendant to please stop the ride because my daughter is unbuckled.” > > Chelsey, like all the other riders, was still restrained by a harness that went over her shoulders, but she had unbuckled a strap that came up between her legs and then connected with the shoulder harness. After many hours of thought, I have determined the only way to stop this from happening again, as the mother would like, is to ban dipshits like her from entering an amusement park. So, your kid was scared, you say? The article makes it sound like _you_ were scared, not your kid. No shit! It’s a thrill ride. At an amusement park. And it sure as hell wasn’t the merry-go-round. This thing has been in the park for years. You had to stand in line and watch the damn thing. But I guess it’s never too late to freak out, eh? So now your kid, or possibly you, wants to get off. Well that’s fine, except that they had already started the ride, despite your claims to the contrary, and you were strapped in already. If everyone who wanted to get off after the ride had started could bring things to a halt, nobody would ever be able to ride the damn things. Don’t come whining to me when you don’t get your way. And then, you were freakin’ out about the seatbelt not being engaged. At this point in the story, it became clear to me that there was a serious lack of common sense coming from mom. Apparently, she believes that the park and the ride manufacturer operate with a reckless disregard for their customer’s safety. What a great way to run a business. :rolleyes: Yes, they were so fucking stupid that their design puts your safety in the hands of a seatbelt which can be disengaged at any time. Didn’t you notice that the harness was kinda stuck in place BEFORE you put the seatbelt on? I’ve been on this type of ride before. You have about a full minute between leaving the ground and getting to the top of the tower. Plenty of time to reattach the seatbelt. But I guess that was just too difficult. Come on, people. When you go to an amusement park, please do not leave your brain at the gate. At least she’s not suing. The family of another stupid park guest sued because he was not warned of the possibility of lightning during - prepare to be shocked (heh heh) - a thunderstorm. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357/2 "2003-07-10T00:23:59Z")
Oh man, I _love_ that ride! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357/3 "2003-07-10T05:01:01Z")
I LOVE Kennywood. Kennywood is the best amusement park-great rides, but it has that old-fashioned, turn of the century feel, not a big commercial place like Six Flags. I haven’t been there in a while-I wanna go. And what the hell-couldn’t she just have reclicked the belt? Oh, and you’d NEVER get me on the Pitt Fall. The Pittsburgh Plunge is better. ---
**Author:** ![Morrigoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Morrigoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrigoon)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357/4 "2003-07-10T07:09:37Z")
While we’re theme-park pitting, I’d like to thank all those assholes who try to take their too-small child on my ride. Especially the ones who have the gall to complain when they get to the load platform and we won’t let their kid ride. Puhleeze… You walked up to a ride named after Indiana Freaking Jones, past the first height check sign (which, I grant you, is off to the side), past the two cast members at the beginning of the line, who are standing on either side of a height check post, past the film room that shows a safety video where you can see how rough the ride is, and all the way to the load platform, and it never ONCE occurred to you that perhaps this attraction had a height limit? And you’ve been at the park for how long? Oh, you’ve never been there before… didn’t you use the map? It has the height limits on it you know! ---
**Author:** ![80sHairMetalMaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/8/ed655f/32.png) [@80sHairMetalMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/80sHairMetalMaven)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357/5 "2003-07-10T13:31:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Morrigoon \* > \*\*While we’re theme-park pitting, I’d like to thank all those assholes who try to take their too-small child on my ride. \*\* What about those idiotic parents who take their kids to the “Alien Encounter” attraction at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando? It’s clearly marked outside several times that it is a very scary attraction, in the dark, with loud noises, etc but still some parents don’t get it. Last time CG and I visited WDW, we did that attraction because we’d done it before and liked it. This time however, seated about four or five seats down from us in the row was a Typical American Suburbanite Family ™ consisting of Soccer Mom, Corporate Dad and Two Perfect Children ages 5 and 8 or thereabouts. About halfway through the show (when the alien is out in the theatre, running about, spraying everybody with slobber and so forth) SM decides she wants to get the TPC out because they are scared shitless. Screaming their bloody heads off. SM is yelling at CD to get the kids out NOW. CD is a largish man…about 6’4 and prolly close to 200 lbs…not fat just muscle-y and not limber enough to slide DOWN and out of the restraining harness (which is there to keep yahoos from getting out and running around in the theatre in the dark). SM continues to scream and I can hear her over the roar of the other stuff going on in the theatre. She manages somehow to wiggle out of the seat and the harness and get the TPC out and drags them out of the theatre (there is an exit, clearly marked with a lighted sign about 20 ft from where she is) and into the gift shop. When the ride was over, we walked into the gift shop and watched the row SM started with CD about taking her kids i nto that show, it was all his fault, etc etc etc. I was thinking “Geez lady…there are only about 50 signs PRE-SHOW stating it is a dark, scary show and not suitable for very young kids or those who frighten easily, ya moron.”:rolleyes: IDBB ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357/6 "2003-07-10T14:10:51Z")
I used to love the Steel Phantom at Kennywood. Someone told me that they changed the name of the ride. Does anyone know what it is called now? Great view of the river from that ride. ---
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357/7 "2003-07-10T14:38:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fruitbat \* > \*\*I used to love the Steel Phantom at Kennywood. Someone told me that they changed the name of the ride. Does anyone know what it is called now? Great view of the river from that ride. \*\* They changed the name to Phantom’s Revenge, re-did most of the ride, and got rid of the inversions. ---
**Author:** ![XCchick22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e19b73/32.png) [@XCchick22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XCchick22)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-thrill-rides-scary-dont-slaughter-park-guests/187357/8 "2003-07-10T16:27:39Z")
Why can’t people just take responsibility for their own lack of judgement? They always want to blame someone else for their stupidity. When I was about 7, and the Tower of Terror had just opened at Disney’s MGM in Orlando, my mom and I had waited in line for quite a while. At some point in the line I seriously freaked out. However, I realized that I should say something about not wanting to ride anymore **before being strapped into the ride**. A 7 year old had more common sense then the idiot mother in the article.