Tips for Introducing someone to coasters

[Titan]

Point out someone younger than him riding Diamondback and then give him a hard time about how a younger kid is riding "big" coasters and he isn't.

[DontWantToWait42mar0]

Yeah all those little girls are riding DBack bro...

[Jr for Birdy]

Point out someone younger than him riding Diamondback and then give him a hard time about how a younger kid is riding "big" coasters and he isn't.

Funny you mention that, my first time riding TTD for one split second I found myself looking up thinking twice about it, just for a second! Then I seen two young girls walking back to get in line talking about how they have to ride it again. I then realized I let a little sissy thought enter my very manly brain and proceeded to ride TTD holding on to nothing, I had to check myself, I wasn't going to leave my all important 'man card' behind at CP!

[AlexHunter1997]

I am not going to lie when my girlfriend wanted me to ride Diamondback I made her make a deal with me before we even got there I get a kiss before and after and no matter how much I scream you make me stay on the ride and no laughing. Now I ride every ride in Kings Island when before I only road one ride The Beast. If that does not work make the girlfriend make promises for later haha she don't have to keep them.

[markr]

_{I think the biggest mistake parents can make is pressuring or tricking their child to ride something when they are totally terrified. I think honesty is always the best policy. When my niece was little I would try to show her what the ride did and if she was afraid I would not force her to ride it. Today she is crazy about coasters. I would advise you to start your friend out small ( such as Woodstock Express, Adventure Express, the ride which was formerly called Runaway Reptar-its Peanuts name escapes me) and work your way up to the bigger coasters starting with The Racer, then The Beast, then Diamond Back, then the coasters with the inversions. However, I implore you-if you friend is too terrified to ride,don't force him. There are people like my sister who hate and will always hate roller coasters and we need to respect their feelings. ( and don't forget-there can be adverse health consequences to riding something when you are absolutely terrified.}

[McSalsa]

Hmm...well, as yet another person who was once afraid of roller coasters and big scary rides, here's how I overcame my fear of coasters, step by step:

-Saw construction and promos for Diamondback, thought it looked cool.

-Sister took me to a Carnival a few weeks before Kings Island trip...I rode a couple flat rides, alas they had nothing that went upside down so I couldn't get any practice on that, but was able to warm-up a bit with rides like 1001 Nights, Monster, Yoyo Swings, etc etc.

-Watched POVs of all the major coasters to get their layouts. As height and inversions were my main "issues", I ended up noticing Beast was mostly a low-to-the-ground coaster, but did have 2 big drops. I ended up wanting to try it first as it didn't look too bad.

-Read stuff here on KICentral as a lurker.

-Arrived at Kings Island and went up to the Eiffel Tower, getting a good look at all the rides I was likely about to "face off" against.

-Sister tricked me into riding The Crypt, outright lying that it didn't go upside down...it did. All of two times. First time caught me off guard. Shockingly, when the ride ended, I was wanting more and was actually upset it ended so soon. So even though it was one of the most dissapointing rides I ever rode, it did serve a purpose to me...

-Finally rode Beast...and loved it. Though the helix finale, which I for whatever reason did not pay attention to when watching the POV's, caught me off guard and did scare me just a bit that first time (and a few rides afterwards)...I actually DUCKED thinking that tunnel was going to chop my head off.

-Having ridden a big fast coaster and something that went upside-down now, I decided to try combining the two and we rode Vortex- after a quick cooldown ride on Shake, Rattle, & Roll first though. The forceful inversions did scare me just a bit, but I was really making progress by this point.

-Next I decided it was time to go for super-tall...Diamondback. This one caught me off guard, as I had zero idea what "airtime" even was before this ride and thus got quite the shock on the first few hills...but by the end I was loving it.

-By this point, I was over coasters all the way, as next we headed to Son of Beast, which I assumed to be the scariest coaster at Kings Island in 2009. It broke down and was closed all day. I never did get to ride it, as it was SBNO by my next visit. So much for it. However, my fears of other rides still existed...Delirium still looked scary as did Drop Tower. But as I was more macho now, having faced rides like Diamondback & Vortex, I was eventually talked into riding both within a year & a half and now those are 2 of my favorite rides at Kings Island.

Alas, this method will not work for everyone, as while I was able to jump in and ride Beast and stuff fairly early, we tried that with my best friends' girlfriend at Holiday World with Raven...and she was crying by the end. (She was OK after 10 minutes though)

Personally, I'd start with Adventure Express or one of the kids coasters. Racer is just a bit tall and often has airtime, and BLSC has a pretty forceful helix and crazy dark tunnel section. But those 2 would be my next ones up, followed by Flight Deck after them (intense, but short). Again though- ask the person if they want to ride them or not first. Don't force anything...

[markr]

Point out someone younger than him riding Diamondback and then give him a hard time about how a younger kid is riding "big" coasters and he isn't.

I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about thrill rides, ie, if I a little kid can ride it, I can ride it. There are many so called bigger kids who cannot ride thrill rides because of health issues such as a heart condition. My father is a good example-he used to love coasters but open heart surgery when he was 64 years old ended his coaster riding career. However, when he was 72 years old, I was with him at Busch Gardens in Tampa and he decided that he wanted to ride The Scorpian which has one inversion-big mistake-I thought I was going to lose my father that day as he almost fainted-thank God he was ok and I got to keep him until 83 years young.

I have been glancing at the other posts such as people riding coasters to impress girls. I implore you, this is absolutely not the right reason for riding coasters-ride them because you enjoy them, not to impress others. If they are real friends they will respect your limitations if you do not wish to ride and, if you do wish to ride because you want to, fine.

[BB1]

Take him on a ride on The Beast at night, say nothing about how it goes, tell him it is a short easy coaster, then at the top tell him "I lied".

[xXDrummerKiDXx]

I like BB1's idea.

[CharleyTheDinosaur]

Take him on a ride on The Beast at night, say nothing about how it goes, tell him it is a short easy coaster, then at the top tell him "I lied".

If our friendship takes a sudden turn for the worse in the next 48 hours I am definately doing this.

[Thrill_Biscuit]

What got me over fear of coasters was someone telling me it's just like sledding, but safer.

EDIT:

Not sure how to equate sledding with inversions, but once you got the basics down, everything becomes fun!

[shawnofthedead]

I am not going to lie when my girlfriend wanted me to ride Diamondback I made her make a deal with me before we even got there I get a kiss before and after and no matter how much I scream you make me stay on the ride and no laughing. Now I ride every ride in Kings Island when before I only road one ride The Beast. If that does not work make the girlfriend make promises for later haha she don't have to keep them.

Me and my girlfriend Kissed on Diamondback on the ride cam, took us three tries but we pulled it off

[Tanna]

I tried several times to get my engagement picture taken on The Beast, but the mister kept putting his arms up, obscuring us both.

Congratulations on your success of a decent picture.

[Jr for Birdy]

Let us know how things turn out! All joking aside, I would just have a good time and not pressure him, just go with the flow.

[The Interpreter]

Let us know how things turn out! All joking aside, I would just have a good time and not pressure him, just go with the flow.

Were you addressing Tanna?

[Jr for Birdy]

Charley the dino.

[The Interpreter]

(I think I knew that, but the ring fits...)

[CharleyTheDinosaur]

Went to the park on Thursday about 1 pm. When we first for there we took a lap around the whole park. I asked my friend if he wanted to try anything. I ponted out Backlot, Adventure Express, and Flight Deck. He said he wanted to take a look at Backlot again. So we went back over and just watched it for a while from different angles. Eventually he said he wanted to see the coasters from the Eiffel Tower. As we were going up and on the observation deck he was perfectly fine. The heights didn't bother him at all so I really didn't know how he would react on a ride.

He chose to try Adventure Express first. The first helixes in Backlot worried him. He was fine the whole time in line. Unfortunately the park was busier than I thought it'd be so the wait was a little longer than I intended. We picked the 3rd row of a middle car. As he sat down it hit him and I could see he wanted to get out. He was already reaching for something to hold on to. Apparently he has to hold on to something attached to the car not just the restraint. He stuck it out though and stayed on.

When the train started moving he was just leaning forward eyes closed and holding on for dear life. I talked to him the whole ride and prepared him for what was coming up. The second anticlimactic lift hill came and he seemed to relax a little. As we walked down the exit ramp I asked him if he was ok and how he handled it. He said he was fine then I asked him if it was fun. He said "oh yeah!".

While his adrenaline was up we rode it again. He still freaked out a little but was already getting better. Think adult with a bad phobia not scared child. That's kind of how he reacted. After riding AE about 3 times he was ready to try Backlot. That didn't go quite as well as AE but he still said it was fun.

He really liked Adventure Express so we ended up riding that about 10 times. Eventually he wanted to sit up front and in the back by himself. We did Backlot a couple more times and he did enjoy them and never freaked out. I was hoping that Adventure Express would get to where he was bored with it. That never really happened though. He had fun every single ride all the way through the last of the night.

I think it went pretty well. Despite all of the statistics about safety and all of the redundant safety systems I told him about it did not matter. It really is more like a phobia for him than just being a chicken. Most importantly we had fun. He is also talking about getting a Gold Pass next season and wanting to try Flight Deck next, then FoF. It almost sounded like he wants to go back again this season.

[Dieseltech20]

Glad to read that all went well with your friend. Repeated trips and he will have Coaster Fever in no time. Was nice of you to be easy on him and make it his day.

It has taken a few seasons to get my daughter (11) on the big ones. She now loves The Beast and The Racer. Hoping she wants to try Diamondback soon.

[invertedgirl]

The first coaster my cousin ever rode was Diamondback, I told him just hold on to the lap bar, enjoy the view, don't hold his breath, and have fun. He loved it but didn't want to ride it again that day.

[KI-ORIG-EMP]

The first coaster that I ever road was the Shooting Star at Coney Island back in 1967. I was scared but after that first drop, I could not wait to get in line again and again.

[thedevariouseffect]

Ah girls are such a good pressure to ride coasters...back in my high school running around days, I wasn't too big into every ride, and my group wanted to ride dominator at geauga lake..I didn't...one promised makeout session later...done

[Tr0y]

have him get on Flight of Fear, don't ever mention loops.

[Dieseltech20]

First time I ever saw a Coaster was at Opryland with my Cousins at the age of 10. We all said "That looks awesome" and got in line. Took 4 rides and loved every second of it.

[TeTe27]

Please don't make anyone ride that doesn't. This video is a perfect example of NOT WHAT TO DO to a child or adult for that matter. This poor kid is probably traumatized for the rest of his life. I don't know if I'm up set that people are just standing around and watching this behavior or the fact that this person is videotaping this......

[CharleyTheDinosaur]

have him get on Flight of Fear, don't ever mention loops.

He actually really wants to do Flight of Fear. The cool thing is that he has a feeling of regret that he didn't do a couple more coasters. I remember when I was a kid, the first season I was big enough to ride Vortex I chickened out a couple of times. I remember having that same regret when we would be leaving the park. That more than anything else is what motivated me get over my fear.

[razmataz99]

^That feeling of regret is what got me on Diamondback.

[Dieseltech20]

The first time we tried to get our Daughter on AE she was nervous in line but not freaking out. Well, she completely broke down when her butt hit the seat. The ride op saw her and told us she could not ride in that state. Of course I wasn't going to force her but it was nice of the Op to ensure she wasn't going to be forced.

[Diamondbacker27]

Yesterday My Uncle Thomas, he's adopted So he is my legal uncle even at 13. Lol. We were at Holiday World Yesterday. He was scared of Legend and The Voyage. I just pushed him in the seat buckled it and pushed his lap bar down But now he loves coasters soo..I'm pretty sure we rode Voyage atleast 6 times.

[NoChickens]

Very torn on this. I was pretty much forced on The Racer when I was 9 or so. Needless to say I didn't threaten to call 911, as it didn't exist. But, a friend 2 years my senior, and about 50 pounds heavier, physically pushed my young skinny frame on the ride. I remember leaving the station, tears rolling down my cheeks, yelling to my mom standing at the railing as we rounded the turn toward the lift hill. Up the lift we went, still crying and freaking out, and then down and through the run. Came in to the station laughing, and been a coaster junky since. Had I not been forced on the first ride, would I be what I am? I doubt I would've had the heart to force my own kids on, luckily they both took to it like donkeys to stubborn ;-)