Movie World

Photo from...Google!

Photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitslice
 

Photo from: http://www.rcdb.com

Chris and I are still recovering from our day spent rollercoastering at Movie World on the Gold Coast. We bought these passes that give us unlimited access to Movie World, Sea World, and Wet 'n Wild World until the end of June 2011. So we thought we'd spend a lovely Saturday by sending our bodies into adrenaline overload. In order to pack light, I left my camera at home, so any pictures you see are courtesy of Google/Movie World.

Neither of us are roller coaster people. In fact, the last time I was on a rollercoaster was when I was in Disneyland when I was 12, and even then the most 'dangerous' one I rode was The Big Thunder Railroad. Not exactly scary. Chris had never been on a real roller coaster as well, so we were pretty excited/terrified/nauseous and wondering if our travel insurance would cover roller coaster accidents.

We decided to get to the park right when it opened as we were told we could probably avoid long line ups for a couple hours. So, at 10am, as soon as the park opened up, we were there ready to go! We decided to do the Superman Ride first since it's one of the most popular. As soon as you walk through the main gates, the monster is there waiting for you. We were really gung ho and one of the first in line, but found out 5 minutes later that they wouldn't be opening the ride on time (I tried not to think of technical failures and impending doom). So, we made our way to the next most terrifying ride: Lethal Weapon. I started to have a mini panic attack as we were waiting in line, but did my best to stay calm and not chicken out. This one was really scary because it did the upside down loops and your feet were hanging out. I'm getting sweaty palms just remembering it. Either way, as soon as I was strapped in I shut my eyes so tight and grasped onto the handles like my life was depending on it, and quite frankly, I felt it was! Off we went. I honestly don't remember much because my eyes were closed the whole time. I have never been more terrified in my life. It was something else. We were tossed and turned, up and down, left and right, and before we knew it, it was over. I'm pretty sure I held my breath the whole time because after we got off I was crying, laughing, and have some difficulties taking a deep breath. I think the adrenaline mixed with my lack of breathing was a bit of an overload. But, after a couple minutes, I was good to go. We were having a mini celebration! We had both just ridden our first 'real' roller coaster! If you would like to see some terrifying footage, here is a Youtube video that someone posted of their experience. They let out a couple profanities during it, so I apologize, but it does give a good representation of the experience.

After we'd recovered from Lethal Weapon, we decided to do something a bit more tame and try the Scoobie Doo roller coaster. I thought that this would be sort of like a train ride through a haunted house, but it actually had some scary turns and dips, including a backwards drop.

Then it was onto the Batman Ride which was pretty tame, but a nice break from the ups and downs. After we came out of that, we noticed that the Superman Ride was up and running. We had thought we would take a break and walk around the park for a bit, but the line was short so we thought it would be a good time to go. From the beginning we should have realized that we were about to strap ourselves onto something absolutely terrifying, but I think we were both in denial. Besides, we had survived Lethal Weapon, how bad could the Superman Ride be? Well, waiting in the line, there were numerous announcements that you could not have anything (emphasis on the ANYTHING) in your pockets. It didn't matter if your pockets zipped, buttoned, velcroed, you couldn't have a single thing on your being other than your clothes. That included no hats or sunglasses. Okay, now we were getting a bit serious, but we could handle it. Then there was a little video that told us we were about to experience 0-100 km/h in 2 seconds, 760 metres of total vertical climb, 4.2 positive G-force, and 1.0 negative G-force. I just took all of that to mean...AGH!! Could I escape? We were pretty far up in the line, so to back out now would be pretty embarrassing. Plus, Chris seemed really excited and I didn't want to make him go alone. So, I started some intense breathing and tried to think of calm beaches. It didn't really work.

Once we were up to the front, we got strapped into our car and once again I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed on for dear life. Chris kept laughing at me for closing my eyes, but to be honest, I'd rather not see if we were about to crash into the earth below.

The ride starts off with a slow intro where you are in the dark going through the 'subway'. There weren't any turns or loops or ups and downs at this point, but I knew it was coming. Then, you stop for a second and all of a sudden you are shot into the daylight at 100 km/h. Again, I had my eyes closed, but the memory is all too clear. The feeling of being shot into the air, then basically floating for a second, and then plummeting downwards was TERRIFYING. There were a couple more turns and loops after that. This time I remembered to breath though. Eek. I can't believe we did that! And we survived! Here is a video of the Superman ride. The beginning is all dark because it's supposedly in the subway, but you'll see the scary part if you stick with it. I'm not quite sure how they got the camera past the 'nothing in your pockets' policy, but it does make for a good video.

We spent most of the time after that on the 'easy' rides and walking around. We had just packed in a morning full of fear and adrenaline and I think we were both a bit exhausted. But, we survived Movie World. And it might sound silly, but I'm really proud of us that we went on those terrifying rides.

I think tomorrow we'll spend our day at the park, kicking around the footy and reading our books under the trees. We've had enough excitement for this weekend.