Well, not really wrong. Not like anything that would get me banned from the park. I didn't vandalize it, I didn't go to the bathroom somewhere that I shouldn't, I didn't punch a mascot or anything.
I just almost seriously hurt myself and, possibly, the people around me.
Let's go into the details.
People might remember that I loved the Alien Encounter ride, but the ride that left me the most shaken was Disney's Tower Of Terror. You might have seen it before.
It's a subtle ride. Easy to miss.
I was extremely excited to ride it, since I was at such an age that "kiddie rides" were "lame." I wanted to go on the ...well, "adult" rides doesn't seem right since you could argue that any ride with a height requirement isn't for kids, but not ones that a lot of little kids would want to be on.
I was not disappointed. The chilling (if a bit corny) tale of the "accident" that struck the Hollywood Tower Hotel, the atmosphere the ride created, and everything else that went into the construction of the ride was perfect.
Now, let's look at a couple of the pictures.
One note, I don't remember there being any of those bellhops being on there when I rode it. Look carefully, see something important on a ride that plummets at speeds faster than free-fall?
Here, let's look at another one.
 |
| Um, hair clips? |
Seat belts.
You need seat belts.
There's a walkway in the middle of the rows so people to sit to the left or the right. When I got on the ride, I don't know if it was just too dark that I couldn't see an open seat or if there was something else I missed, but I was the last person on and wound up sitting in the seat at the end of the walkway. There were two handhold bars to either side, there presumably for people who were actually, you know, sitting in the right place...but here's the thing.
I couldn't find a seat belt. So while I sat there awkwardly looking for an open seat, the ride began.
I sat down and grabbed hold of the bars as tightly as I could as the ride started to go up. I wondered if at some point someone was going to notice "holy crap, some kid isn't in the right seat."
No such luck.
The ride continued to the top...and then plummeted. My hands held onto the bars with a death grip. I felt myself lift up from the seat and realized that if I wasn't holding on, I'd keep going up. I almost felt like my arms were extending. As the ride stopped and I landed with a thump back in my seat, I almost relaxed before I realized it was going back up again.
The ride continues up and down several times, and the whole time I was dead silent because all of my focus were on two things:
1) "Don't let go, don't let go, don't let go, don't let go, don't let go."
2) "Wow, that's a great view from up top here. I see why people liiiiiiiiiiiiiii-don't let go don't let go don't let go!"
Sadly, I didn't buy a picture of myself with a death grip on the bars. I didn't really want to advertise my screw-up.
I did buy a giant hologram button, though. So I do have that.
So make a note people, you can go on the ride without a seat belt on. Other people report that if they took their seat belts off, the ride gets shut down as punishment. I guess I was just lucky because I wasn't drawing attention to it.
I also had sore hands for the next few hours and I don't think I've ever appreciated solid ground more than I did after that ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment