Despite having a long-standing passion and interest for roller coasters and amusement parks in general, I’ve never been a fan of the flat rides that often fill out a park’s offering of attractions.
Whether you’re visiting a smaller regional theme park or taking a trip to a resort destination such as Disney or Universal, you’re bound to notice a wealth of non-roller coaster attractions scattered throughout the parks.
Roller coasters have always been the focal point of amusement park visits for me – getting a chance to experience a thrilling ride on a massive structure that takes up a decent plot of land within the park while taking in forces that everyday life simply doesn’t supply.
Yet as someone who also had a definitive fear of roller coasters as a child, amusement parks should be and often are built for all kinds of audiences, with many rides appealing to families and young kids while other attractions are geared towards those who are likely going to skip the more intense rides.
Typically, rides at amusement parks can be broken down into four relatively broad categories – roller coasters, water rides (which can include log flumes and river rapids rides), dark rides and flat rides.
However, when it comes to what kinds of attractions are typically expected to deliver a high-thrill experience, you’re usually looking at just roller coasters and flat rides.
Flat rides, like roller coasters, have extreme variance in their levels of thrill, with attractions such as carousels and ferris wheels standing out as longtime examples of flat rides that appeal to both children and family audiences.
In their most extreme form, flat rides can be massive, high-thrill attractions that have the possibility to eclipse their roller coaster counterparts in thrills. These can include massive drop towers and spinning pendulums, both of which can be found at many larger regional theme parks across the world.
While I love roller coasters and was able to put aside my earlier fear of heights to begin enjoying as many of them as possible, I never had a breakthrough moment like that with flat rides, which always felt like much less of a thrilling adventure for me, even on the higher thrill attractions.
After finally conquering the roller coasters of Six Flags Great America in 2010, I started to think that I would be willing to do just about any amusement ride there was, and I started to expand my interest into drop towers and other large attractions.
My inaugural drop tower experience came in March 2011 at Universal Islands of Adventure, when I rode Doctor Doom’s Fearfall, a nearly 200-foot ride that, unlike other drop towers, also featured a speedy ascent, with riders rotating between rising at a rapid speed and experiencing a free falling sensation on the way back down.
I didn’t exactly love the ride, but also wasn’t turned off enough by it to swear off drop towers for good. Just over a year later, I got my first (and only ride) on Giant Drop at Six Flags Great America, a 227-foot tall tower that followed the traditional format – lifting riders up slowly before an abrupt, unexpected freefall back to the ground.
While I didn’t find myself overly scared, I did feel noticeably uncomfortable during the outward-facing ascent, a distinct feeling from the gradual climb of a lift hill where you can easily just stare ahead of you and prepare yourself for the drop. On a drop tower, there’s no way to avoid confronting the extreme height you are rising to – and even if you’re not left feeling like you’re going to die, you are almost certainly going to feel more vulnerable than you would on a roller coaster.
But even moving beyond the slow ascent and unsettling pause at the top of the tower, the thrill the ride provides just isn’t exactly what I’m looking for in terms of an amusment experience. While the sensation of free falling often can feel great when it’s implemented as part of a ride, it is still merely just one sensation out of many that roller coasters and some other rides are capable of providing.
Setting aside a roller coaster’s height, drop length and speed, it is a more immersive ride by definition, taking passengers through a unique layout that features elements specific to whatever coaster you’re riding on a fluid journey around the track’s layout.
This allows for so many different factors to play into how much one enjoys a roller coaster. Its setting in the park, how well the trains maintain their energy throughout the layout and how much the theming is integrated are all major factors in what makes people enjoy a roller coaster.
When it comes to flat rides, there often isn’t much more to them outside of the specific thrill they are designed to provide, whether that be the alternation of positive and negative G forces on a swinging pendulum ride or the freefall of a drop tower. On a roller coaster, within fractions of a second of one another, it’s possible to experience a range of forces and elements – all of which feel different at different speeds in different conditions.
That has long been a significant part of the appeal of coasters to myself – that even with cloned roller coasters, there are differences in the ride experience that can’t at all be replicated with two double-decker carousels at separate locations. There is no such thing as “you’ve rode one, you’ve rode them all” when it comes to roller coasters, and that creates the allure for many enthusiasts. Each credit is a unique memory and experience that is novel from every other coaster, and at least for me, it greatly helps in making my visits to amusement parks more memorable.
I’d be lying if I said there weren’t any practical reasons for my aversion to flat rides as well. Many are, by definition, low-capacity rides that can only run one ride cycle at a time, often leading to longer, slower-moving lines than what one would find with a roller coaster that is running at least two-train operations.
Of course, a part of me loves the existence of flat rides if only to help spread out the lines for roller coasters to other attractions, which can certainly make a difference if you’re visiting on a busy day. Ultimately, parks aim to gear their attractions towards all demographics, and my demographic of exclusive coaster rider isn’t exactly one that parks are often marketing towards.
For members of the general public, flat rides are an indispensible part of the amusement park experience, often containing the first rides a child will ever experience (such as a carousel) while also featuring offerings for the biggest of daredevils out there. Flat rides are also visually appealing – often colorful with vibrant lights and a conspicuous display that can be seen throughout much of the park. Attractions like the swinging and spinning pendulum rides are as intimidating as they are alluring – and they all have their place in major theme parks.
Yet when it comes to what I want to get out of an amusement park visit, flat rides just don’t do it for me – and that’s more than fine, as it perfectly demonstrates parks’ abilities to find something for everyone to enjoy during their visit, making them still an ideal place to forge new memories and bonds with friends and family.
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