Gosh, I'm reading some of these posts about parents absolutely not letting their kids ride the ride and I'm sorry, but I've gotta laugh.....
Some people are going to disagree, but I'm sure there's a bunch of you who will agree with me: When I was young, my dad would make me try everything at least once this way I can make a fair judgement of whether or not I liked something. When it came to my rollercoaster loving father "making" me try the coasters even though I would be deathly afraid of going on, you betcha - he made me ride them. Am I mad? NOoooooooo. Heck, it was 30 seconds or one minute of sheer terror, but I knew I'd come out of there alive!
We went down to the pre-opening of Mission Space. We really went down for
MNSSHP, but it was awesome to see the whole place all set up for the opening and the special spot for the press. I told the kids I really had no idea if it would be too scary or not, but let's give it a try. I told them that I did know that you had to keep your eyes on the screen and do not look away from the screen and that we might get dizzy....
Well, here we are on the ride. I've got my husband (Thrill Seeker) and my two girls, 9 & 10. I've got an equilibrium problem and I knew I would have trouble, but just when I started to feel it, my 9 year old starts screaming she's having an asthma attack. Mommy Mommy I need my inhaler! she starts screaming. Her inhaler is, of course, tucked into my fanny-pack that is located in the bag holder. I'm trying to kick open the bag holder with my feet while I am also trying to stave off getting sick AND trying to keep my eyes on the screen!
As most of you know, the spinning part comes and goes and then we both started to feel better. The rest of the ride went the same way: When we started spinning, she started screaming.
When we got off, she started to cry, but then I've got my tough guy husband who starts jibing her, Oh, C'mon! It wasn't that bad! and me being mommy I was trying to comfort her. If I had let her continue to cry, it would have ruined the whole day, so instead I got a little firm, told her to stop crying and convinced her that she was such a big girl and heck, won't that be awesome to go back to school and tell all your friends?
BTW, it wasn't an asthma attack, it was just anxiety and I was trying to tell her that to calm her down. She had childhood asthma which she grew out of, but I brought the inhaler anyway because the fall in Florida triggers both my and her allergies.
Would I take the kids on it again? Of course I would (if they wanted to).
I put my complete faith and trust in Disney. They are top-notch and in my opinion would never put anyone at risk. I feel Disney needs to keep these thrill rides. If they don't, my husband probably wouldn't go, which means my family wouldn't go. There needs to be a balance for both the thrill-seekers and the non-thrill-seekers. It should be fun for every age group in the family, not just the babies.
If you do not feel it is a ride for you, don't ride it. I don't ride TOT or RRC. I am, however, going to try Everest. My dad always taught me to try everything once and I'm sure this'll be something my kids will do with their kids, too.
Edited: I'm watching the 10:00 o'clock news and the reporter stated that the woman who had just passed had long-term health problems.
Like I had said before, I have something called peripheral vestibuloper, which is a chronic dizzy problem - I'm always dizzy. Sometimes not as bad as others. Reading all the warning signs posted everywhere, I still chose to ride the ride. That was my personal decision. I rode it, I got dizzy, but I wanted to experience Disney's new ride. When I was little, I wanted to be an astronaut, so this was my chance to try it without leaving the Earth
The one thing we know about this poor woman was that she had long-term health problems, which I deem to mean that she knew she was not healthy. The signs that are posted everywhere are also in different languages. It is impossible to get on that ride and not see at least one sign. Despite the warnings, she chose to ride. It is sad, I know, the woman did not get on that ride thinking she was going to die.
Let's just hope that those who do have similiar high-blood pressure problems will think twice before riding.
It's not up to Disney to say, well, we can't come out with that ride because what about all those people with certain conditions? They say, let's make this ride for all those who will enjoy it, but we must warn those who might have an adverse reaction.
We don't need to call for the shutting down of a ride - we need people to take responsibility for themselves.
