Thank you DISNEY PADAWAN! I AM A BONAFIDE CONVERTED RIDE CHICKEN!

[chimo2u]

Hi Disney Padawan!

I wanted to thank you so much for your amazing advice to me about overcoming my fears on roller coasters. As you know, my son and I just came back from a week at Disney and 3 days at Universal/IOA.....You helped convert me and I guess I can no longer be called a Ride chicken!!! I sure surprised myself!!! I even enjoyed RCnRC again, we rode it over and over along with Space Mountain (no fear) and TOT at WDW.....

Universal/IOA side,

We arrived and headed for Universal Studios first. First ride we came upon was Rip Ride Rockit....my son really wanted to do this ride, he'd talked about it all week.....I just decided to do it and hopped on with my son. What a fun ride!!! No fear whatsoever, the drop/and lift didn't even phase me...it was pure fun! Then came the HULK....I just decided to go for it. I am so happy I did!! That ride is pure fun!!! No Fear whatsoever, each loop was pure fun. so smooth and HULK is my absoulute favourite ride out of all the rides I've done! I found it not intense AT ALL.....WEll, we where on a roll here, so I decided to head over to IOA while it was still light out...I was feeling brave!!! I decided I've come this far, I might as well just go try the Dragon Challenge...we decided to keep going and to just get on Dragon Challenge and try the blue side....out of all the coasters, this is the one where I couldn't really decide if I liked it or not afterwards...it's a dicombobulating > (sp??) experience! It was my first inverted coaster, and that is a feeling in itself.....we rode row 3. The climb was a little un-nerving....but you know what, it was completely doable and I managed to get through it without any mishaps/or overwhelming fear!!
Then off that and we decided to do the red side.....I've come this far, wasn't about to give up now!! I kept thinking about your tips and how I would be so proud to come back and tell you that you had converted me!!
Red side was ...... a little wilder than blue....I think I prefer blue....there where a few loops in Red dragon that felt more intense, but still, I managed to do it without a problem! If I had to rank Universal Coasters for other people who may be wondering, I think I would rate as follows from most intense to least intense:

Dragon Challenge Red
Dragon Challenge Blue
THE HULK
RIP RIDE ROCKIT
THE MUMMY

I even managed to do Forbidden Journey...the similator experience didn't phase me at all...I found it very smooth. I had a little fear with the story line, and it took me awhile to get up the nerve to go on it. Wouldn't you know it, but our ride bench got stuck for 10 minutes in the Dementor room!!!! Maybe that was a good thing though, as the lights came on and I was able to really look at all the ride details from the mechanics of the bench/ to how the dementors where made from styrofoam and cloth....and it helped ease my fear!
So, thanks to your kind words and patient advice, I can only say....Thank you so much for helping walk me through these rides and giving me the courage to just try it!! You converted me, and I guess I can no longer class myself as a ride chicken! I am capable of more than I give myself credit for , and you where right.... I was ready to take the plunge and rid myself of the fear. For your patience and advice, I am extremely grateful....you enabled me to enjoy my trip with my son to the fullest!
Kind Regards,
Marie

 

[macraven]

glad you had fun.

coaster rides are kewl...............
welcome to the club

 

[aubriee]

OK, how did you overcome your fear? I love FJ and Mummy. I also love Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Expedition Everest. I can ride RnR Coaster, but am not that fond of it. However I am terrified of Tower of Terror (hate drops), Hulk, Rip Ride Rocket, and Dragons. Talk me out of my fear. I'll be at WDW and Universal the first week of May and I would love to be able to surprise my husband by riding these.

 

[Metro West]

Glad you had a good time and got over your ride fear!

 

[chimo2u]

Bumping this back up so Disney Padawan gets a chance to read my update

 

[BC Disney Lover]

Congrats on overcoming your fears!! We also just came back and had a blast. I wasn't worried at all about coasters but I came off Hulk feeling very light headed. I absolutely loved Rip, Ride, Rockit.
Forbidden Journey scared the crap out of me! I was worried about getting nauseous but it was the dementors that got me My Ds10 and DH loved it though.

 

[chimo2u]

OK, how did you overcome your fear? I love FJ and Mummy. I also love Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Expedition Everest. I can ride RnR Coaster, but am not that fond of it. However I am terrified of Tower of Terror (hate drops), Hulk, Rip Ride Rocket, and Dragons. Talk me out of my fear. I'll be at WDW and Universal the first week of May and I would love to be able to surprise my husband by riding these.

Hi Aubriee Disney Padawan gave me some wonderful advice regarding how to overcome my fear on rollercoasters....I will try and find the detailed ride advice he wrote to me on one of the earlier threads. In my own opinion, I found that if I had less time to think, the better (ie) no long line to "stew" over what was about to happen!! I also just had to "get on and pull down the restraint" before I could change my mind. Once safely strapped in, I knew that I wasn't going to die, so just sat back and tried to take in the experience.... Hulk was so much fun, no adverse feelings whatsoever. It is smooth and fast, and did I mention, fun, fun, fun!
I guess I am stronger than I let myself believe because I ended up having no real adverse reactions to any of the coasters in Universal or IOA...in fact, the phsychological rides got to me more than the coaster.....think, forbidden journey! ....That ride took some calming myself to do and just constant reminding that the creatures are NOT real, and I will survive.

I LOVE TOT in Disney World!! I rode it over and over this trip, each night my son and I would end our day usually in DHS re-riding TOT and RcnRC as much as we could! I just find the drops on TOT very smooth, and they don't cause my tummy to have that awful drop feeling. Perhaps it's because you are being pulled downwards, and not really free-falling...but I find the drops to be very smooth and "uplifting" I love that little bit of airtime you get out of your seat when being pulled down!!! My son also made me conquer my nerves about doing TOT at night! and IN THE FRONT ROW!!! That was my last hurdle for this ride, as I usually sat last row, by the wall.....by the end of this trip, I was fine Front row, middle seat if need be....it was all good!
I think you should try TOT if you haven't....it was seriously a fun ride.

Another ride I really enjoyed was Rip Ride Rockit at Univesal....it is long and windy more than "thrill factor" you don't go upside down at all....the vertical lift is not at all unerving to me as I just stared at the sky until we where over the hill....and the first drop is NOT as scary as it looks....it's smooth and lots of fun listening to your favourite music!

I will look for the thread where I got some great advice about overcoming the physical forces that roller coasters can throw at you.

Be back later

 

[IdesOmarch]

Congratulations. I find it strange, no offense to you personally, that people fear theme park rides. I mean I realize a lot of people do, but the statistics are like you are more likely to get hurt or die in the car ride to the park, than you ever will on any ride in the park. The rides are totally totally safe. I don't think anyone in the US has ever been killed on a Universal ride, not totally sure, but about 98%. And the accidents I've heard about were all because of the persons fault, they either jumped a fence and went somewhere where they weren't supposed to or something like that.

 

[blodders]

Hi Disney Padawan!

I wanted to thank you so much for your amazing advice to me about overcoming my fears on roller coasters. As you know, my son and I just came back from a week at Disney and 3 days at Universal/IOA.....You helped convert me and I guess I can no longer be called a Ride chicken!!! I sure surprised myself!!! I even enjoyed RCnRC again, we rode it over and over along with Space Mountain (no fear) and TOT at WDW.....

Universal/IOA side,

We arrived and headed for Universal Studios first. First ride we came upon was Rip Ride Rockit....my son really wanted to do this ride, he'd talked about it all week.....I just decided to do it and hopped on with my son. What a fun ride!!! No fear whatsoever, the drop/and lift didn't even phase me...it was pure fun! Then came the HULK....I just decided to go for it. I am so happy I did!! That ride is pure fun!!! No Fear whatsoever, each loop was pure fun. so smooth and HULK is my absoulute favourite ride out of all the rides I've done! I found it not intense AT ALL.....WEll, we where on a roll here, so I decided to head over to IOA while it was still light out...I was feeling brave!!! I decided I've come this far, I might as well just go try the Dragon Challenge...we decided to keep going and to just get on Dragon Challenge and try the blue side....out of all the coasters, this is the one where I couldn't really decide if I liked it or not afterwards...it's a dicombobulating > (sp??) experience! It was my first inverted coaster, and that is a feeling in itself.....we rode row 3. The climb was a little un-nerving....but you know what, it was completely doable and I managed to get through it without any mishaps/or overwhelming fear!!
Then off that and we decided to do the red side.....I've come this far, wasn't about to give up now!! I kept thinking about your tips and how I would be so proud to come back and tell you that you had converted me!!
Red side was ...... a little wilder than blue....I think I prefer blue....there where a few loops in Red dragon that felt more intense, but still, I managed to do it without a problem! If I had to rank Universal Coasters for other people who may be wondering, I think I would rate as follows from most intense to least intense:

Dragon Challenge Red
Dragon Challenge Blue
THE HULK
RIP RIDE ROCKIT
THE MUMMY

I even managed to do Forbidden Journey...the similator experience didn't phase me at all...I found it very smooth. I had a little fear with the story line, and it took me awhile to get up the nerve to go on it. Wouldn't you know it, but our ride bench got stuck for 10 minutes in the Dementor room!!!! Maybe that was a good thing though, as the lights came on and I was able to really look at all the ride details from the mechanics of the bench/ to how the dementors where made from styrofoam and cloth....and it helped ease my fear!
So, thanks to your kind words and patient advice, I can only say....Thank you so much for helping walk me through these rides and giving me the courage to just try it!! You converted me, and I guess I can no longer class myself as a ride chicken! I am capable of more than I give myself credit for , and you where right.... I was ready to take the plunge and rid myself of the fear. For your patience and advice, I am extremely grateful....you enabled me to enjoy my trip with my son to the fullest!
Kind Regards,
Marie

Any chance you can post the link to the tips you were given? My DH is absolutely refusing to even consider going on a coaster of any
description ,despite never even having tried one, which is annoying me no end. I reckon , try one at least! If you don't like it , fine! Never do one again...but at least try!!

 

[chimo2u]

Any chance you can post the link to the tips you were given? My DH is absolutely refusing to even consider going on a coaster of any
description ,despite never even having tried one, which is annoying me no end. I reckon , try one at least! If you don't like it , fine! Never do one again...but at least try!!

OK! , I went looking and finally found the thread with all the very helpful ride tips from Disney Padawan....He was AMAZING at explaining everything in GREAT detail and definitely, I credit him to getting me over my fear and into the category of "converted!" If I can do these rides, ANYONE can, and I sincerely mean that....I was a huge chicken who often made myself sick thinking about a new ride! I LOVED every ride at Disney AND UNIVERSAL/IOA.....and as another poster mentioned, I often kept the thought in my head that "Universal/Disney is very safe", and I have NEVER heard of people dieing on a ride unless they had a pre-existing conditon of somesort (ie) already had heart/ medical problem....but as to a ride malfunction??? I never heard any negative reports of Disney/or Universal...so that went a long way to making me feel safe! Here you go with the link...it started out as a thread about overcoming my fear to do Forbidden Journey, then evolved into a discussion about overcoming ride fear in general (sorry to the OP, if the thread was hijacked....however, I dont' think it was because a lot of useful tips came out of that thread!)
I will always be grateful to Disney Padawan for taking the time and having the patience to explain and talk me through this phobia!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2476998
I had a BLAST! ....I am not a young kid either, I am a 41 yr old Mom of two teen boys (18 and 15)
I encourage everyone who might be scared to just give it a try...it's only a couple minutes out of your life, if you HATE it, you never have to do it again...but your fear could be keeping you from some amazing fun!!

~ Marie

 

[Bluer101]

I always tell people to go when the line is shorter (helps if you stay onsite) and get right on, sit down, pull down bars, and breath. Also I tell them that it is all over in less than 2 minutes. If you don't like it don't ride again, but at least you tried.

Even the best riders get nervous and butterflies when trying a new coaster.

 

[rpbert1]

My DW was 48 and eventually went on about 3 or 4 years ago. took the whole vacation to convince her, she said she would go on, tried to tell her to do it the first day, as she could enjoy it all for the time we where there, she left it to the last night, and went on Hulk, and has never looked back

 

[Planogirl]

Wow, good going. I'm still scared of the Hulk but maybe I can talk myself into it someday...

 

[aubriee]

OK! , I went looking and finally found the thread with all the very helpful ride tips from Disney Padawan...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2476998
~ Marie

Thanks for the link! I didn't know about the exhale trick and apparently have always done this wrong. I have a tendency to try to hold my breath as much as possible until the ride is over. What I hate about coasters is that drop feeling you get in your stomach, going upside down, and I don't like coasters where my feet dangle.

 

[mombrontrent]

I think the BEST part of coaters is that feeling you get in your stomach during a big drop!

 

[chimo2u]

I think the BEST part of coaters is that feeling you get in your stomach during a big drop!

Funny enough, I NEVER seem to get that big "uggghh/drop" feeling in my stomach! TOT, and the hill on Rip Ride Rockit.....even a big 100 foot drop on a wooden roller coaster I did at a Six Flags in California.....they never affect my stomach negatively. The one that does????? a little kiddie ride at West Edmonton Mall (called shooting star, or something like that) it is a miniature version of the "Dr. Doom" fear fall type rides. Maybe that's why I stay off Dr. Doom fear fall and others like it, LOL.... that ride really tickles my stomach on the down drops...it's quite funny, I love TOT, but that little kiddie ride puts my stomach in a lurch!!!