Carnival Rides
 

Thought I would take a general inquiry of people, to just seddle the ever running thought process I have. My team is at a local fair all week, and I went on two rides today. Has anyone ever heard of the zipper? :D Basically it's a large version with many more cars than your average salt & pepper shaker seen at some parks. I was wondering what the weirdest carny ride was anyone has seen.

I don't know about the weirdest, but I love carnival rides...my personal fav is the "Scrambler" which might be renamed by now. Every summer me and my friends would go up to Bay Beach in Green Bay and ride it all day, I hope to resume that tradition with some crazy people near there (they know who they are) and speaking of carnivals:

:D

There was one ride I remember which had a bunch of spherical cars going around in a circle but as they went around they tumbled over too. It was wack.

Yeah, Austin Powers came out today.



"Small hands, smell like cabbage"

The zipper ruled! :P I guess I should have thought differently about bringing my leatherman and keys aboard. That could have been painful :) Luckily, all that came out of the pockets was my gum. Also, that bar was in a _bad_ spot. I wanna go on it again :) Fear the space ships...for they shall go round and round faster than you can imagine!

I hate the zipper the first time I was on one the little pin holding the door shut some how came undone and the door FLEW OPEN Holy %%%% that was the scariest thing ever I'll never go near one again.

what is the zipper???????????????????????? :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

Ooh, rides!
 

The Zipper is manufactured by a company called Chance-Morgan, though, formerly, each was a separate company.

It's one of the oldest carnival rides you'll see in operation.

If you can find your way out to a big midway, you'll see some amazing rides.

My favorite is the Super Loop on Top, currently marketed by Zamperla as the Wind Shear - though it was originally designed by a company named Soriani and Moser. There are only two of these in the country right now. One is permanently installed in Wildwood, NJ as Storm, while the other travels with Reithoffer Shows.

Jump, from Huss is my 2nd favorite flat ride. The only operating Jump in the country, that I'm aware of, is at Six Flags Great Adventure - though the ride *is* portable. It's rarely open, however.

The Top Scan , from Mondial Fair Attractions of Holland, is amazing. In North America, there are only 4 of these that I'm aware of. Only one of those travels. They're located at Adventureland, Farmingdale, NY (20 minutes from home, baby!), Paramount's Canda's Wonderland, Lagoon Park, Utah (Shown in the photo). . . and the traveling ride - Space Roller.

Mondial also makes the Supernova, which can be found at the Texas State Fair (Indiago) or at Adventureland, Farmingdale, NY, as Surf Dance.

...and, here are two favorites that I haven't ridden yet -

Thriller - Though it's currently installed at Six Flags Astroworld as Texas Tornado, that it is a portable roller coaster that spent years traveling European fairs as Thriller. It's the single most forceful roller coaster in operation, exerting +6.5 G's.

and

Eurostar, a portable inverted coaster with 4 inversions.

There are many, many more cool carnival rides. I can write some about the less exotic rides a bit later on in the morning. There's all sorts of goodness to be had with Jet Stars, Orbitrons, Afterburners, Spin Outs, Inverters, and many more ;)

This....

is the zipper :)

michael, those last two don't look portable. the only portable roller coaster i went on was really bad. they had to push you out of the station, then the chain was even looser than our robot's and the entire ride was supported by blocks of wood. it also sucked more than anything in the world, but that's besides the point :D.

When ever I go to a carnival and I just look at the rides I start to feel sick. I just stick to carnival games, which I am not good at. :p Those pictures of rides that Michael had links to made me feel a bit sick also.

bah. i say we have a team trip to some amusement part (like great adventure or something). then we can make you not be sick on rides like that anymore :D.

seriously though, i used to be afraid of roller coasters. then, in 8th grade i went to a semi-travel camp, and we went to hershey park. my friends said, ian, you're coming in the roller coaster group. i didn't have much of a choice. so, of course, first thing they go to is Great Bear, the biggest roller coaster in the park. so, i went on, and from then, i've loved roller coasters. try it, it's fun :D.

Care to explain?

On Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror, the seating is arranged in rows split across an aisleway. If you've ridden it, I think it's pretty easy to imagine what I'm saying.

The last row, however, is unbroken, as there's no need for an aisle to pass through it. But, you can't have a lap bar that runs across the length of the car, because then there'd be no way for people to pass through it and sit down.

So, the middle seat in the back row (#5), has a seatbelt as a restraint rather than a lapbar. It's the ejection seat :)

Sit there, loosen the seat belt up, and it's airtime heaven.

Yeah, I'm pretty much scared to death of roller coasters... I'm so afraid of heights, it's not even funny! I went on the rinky-dink roller coaster inside the Mall of America (anyone who's been there knows what I'm talking about) and I couldn't walk for an hour afterwards because I was so petrified from being that high off the ground! Yikes. :eek:

- Katie

DJ - I'm not going to Great America!!! :p

I went to the Mall of America one day with my Mom. (We flew from Long Island to Minneapolis, went to the Mall of America for the day, then flew back home that night.) When I saw all the rides inside, I was amazed. A whole amusment park in the middle of a mall. My mom and I were too scared to go on any of them though(such as the rollar coaster). We do not really like going very fast or very high or both at the same time.

I went on Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror only once out of about 5 times I went to Disney World when Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror was there. I don't think that I am ever going on that agian. I never knew about the ejection seat/suicide seat before.

If you have not realized , I am chicken when it come to ride like these.

Hehehe, a small group of us from my team ventured into MGM Wed. after arriving at Nats this year. Our experience is a rememberable one like others, however, no one was arguing over the seat with no lap bar. We stuck the other driver back there, and he had a little more air time then he had expected! :D Sorry Rob!:p We also experienced the Aerosmith rollercoaster and a short response for that would be: why do you have to wait over an hour to get on the biggest thrill ride in Disney World!! I wanna go again, and again, and anyways it was good!

The fair ended yesterday, and I had to experience one more ride. The zipper was good, but I wanted to do something different. So, being dumb like I am, I let Rob and evulish take me on this retched ride called the Tornado. BLAH!!! what a mistake! There are four people sitting in a circular car type object, and a round thing in the middle so you can make you car spin out of control. There was around 10 of these cars going in a huge circle with a large force. Aggghhhh, the memories are coming back to haunt my head as I talk about them. I deffinately did not enjoy the long night afterwards at the demo derby!

Ooh, it's a Wisdom Tornado. Those are fun ;)

They're pretty common rides these days. They replaced the Tilt-A-Whirl I used to run with one of these. They're fun, I guess, but if you're in the mood for a crazy spinning ride, you need to find an orbitron.

I can't ever find picture of the orbitron, but it's very similar to a scrambler - except the cabins rotate to be perpendicular to the ground. The only park that has one of these is Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and it's named The Flying Machine.

scared lil captain
 

i don't like roller coasters, rides that take me upside down, or rides that take me too high...but i do like speed so i love the thunderbolt and the music express, i like the break dance but ths another thread...."have you meet a girl on a ride"

Yep, so I think I have you all beat on the terrified of roller coasters thing since i slid under the restraint on a drop (i'm a physics marvel) and nearly fell off of one when i was 7.... my teammates had to drag me on space mountain in Florida.... but it wasn't as big or scary as the Hurricane.... and anyone from Indiana or who's gone to Indiana Beach knows which one I'm talking about. (And unfortunately, I am getting dragged to Great America and I'm starting to shake already... but maybe I'll hide in a bathroom all day.)

Biggest Wimp of Them All

I had a bad experiance on the Zipper when I was 5-6ish.
I was a skinny short kid then. At a fair, I was right at the line for the minimum hight. The guy decided to let me go, cause my dad was going. He also let my little brother go, because my dad and I were going.

We get on the ride, and halfway though, Tyler slides down and his face is under the bar. My dad grabs him up and spends therest of the ride holding us in place. I know I was screaming "stop the ride" until it stoped.
Turned out there was a few inches of sawdust on the ground that gave me a few extra inches.


Didn't ride one again until 2 years ago. Great fun it was.


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/me is listening to E:\Hoobastank\Hoobastank\Hoobastank - 01 - Crawling in the Dark.mp3

Re: scared lil captain
 

Ha! I'm assuming your talking about Coney Island's Breakdance, Evan?

That has a reputation for being one of the most violently run rides in the country. The Breakdance is traditionally viewed as a family ride, but from the stories I've heard about how they run that thing, it's amazing.

It's certainly better than the way they run the Break Dance at Great Adventure, anyway.

buhwaha? what thats mean!


anyway

When it comes to coasters/carnival rides ill ride anything except carnival rides that look like they were put together in 10 minutes and the ones that keep getting torn down and set back up again of the summer...yeah there was a zipper car that fell off at a local carnival a few summers ago and almost killed the kids...so ya i dont trust carnies..


Roller Coasters are a different story....man wow what a rush!

The breakdance is vicious. I think the carnies operating it TRY to kill you.

Yarr...I think I still have your claw marks in my arm :D I love that ride...

Re: Re: scared lil captain
 

ahh yes the very one from coney island, and the way they run it depends on whose in the booth. all in all its in good fun (just don't ride by yourself...in 90 degree heat....after drinking a coke....with a bad carine in the booth. trust me it ain't fun)

Yeah Im pretty sure thats the case...I think there is some kind of conspiricy going on.

Most carnival rides are safe :p
Most carnies are creepy, though. It's a law of the Universe.

See, it's a business, and it's often not in a business' best interest to kill its customers.

Usually.

Hmm, that's debatable....

You go first. :)