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5 Disney Rides for Seniors and the Motion-Challenged
By Chuck
Jones
This topic is for those that love the Disney rides,
and particularly love the thrilling extreme rides but are unable to ride them
because of advancing age or being afflicted with a medical sensitivity to
motion. I am one of those people. I am 61 years old now, but as a young kid I
used to ride every extreme ride that came along. In Atlanta, Georgia, every fall we used to
have a big traveling carnival called the Southeastern Fair come to town for two
weeks. They had to assemble every ride
from the first plank to the last nail, and had a huge roller coaster that
seemed to teeter and tremble to the point of collapsing at every turn and
dip. But I rode that thing with vigor
and excitement too many times to count.
Then, in high school I played football and got several concussions (this
was years before they realized the danger in this that the NFL is now
fighting). The first time I decided to
do a ride after these concussions was in college. Me and three of my college buddies were
commuting back to campus one early fall Sunday night after a weekend at home,
and came upon one of those shopping center carnivals. They thought it would be great fun to stop
and do the rides, and I went along hesitantly.
The first ride was the Tilt-A-Whirl.
It was also my last ride. I told
them I was sick and had to go back and wait in the car. I barely made it to the parking lot when I
stopped and threw up so much that I swore I could taste the cranberry sauce
from last Thanksgiving Dinner. I made it
to the car and crawled into the back seat and closed my eyes. The next thing I remembered was waking up in
my dorm room bed. Somehow they had
gotten me out of the car and into the dorm.
After that, I knew I couldn’t do the thrill rides anymore, and to
further establish that, about five years ago, I was diagnosed with
vertigo. So, being 61 years old with a
history of concussions and vertigo, I have to choose my rides very
carefully. This is hard because I still
love the excitement of the best thrill rides, so I have come up with this list
of the very best ones that people like me can ride. I promise you that these rides are sure to
thrill, but not make you sick, so give them a try on your next Disney Vacation.
#5---(Tie) Thunder
Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom) and Kali
River Rapids (Animal Kingdom). Both
of these rides have great motion and speed, but it’s the straight-ahead kind
that will not make you motion sick. The
dips and turns of Thunder Mountain are on the mild side, but you still get the
thrill of a roller coaster. Kali River
lets you enjoy the motion of the water as it takes you over some gentle falls
and splashes you with refreshing water in the turns on a hot day. You will most certainly exit this ride
completely soaked, but feeling great.
The fun-filled motion of Thunder Mountain has led me to immediately
getting back in line after it’s finished.
One last advantage of these two rides is that they are rarely crowded
with people in line, so your wait time is minimal.
#4---Dinosaur
(Animal Kingdom). This ride thrills in
two ways. First, the motion takes you
into some violent twists and turns combined with the excitement of moving in
and out of the dark. But, the motion
here is completely safe for us afflicted souls.
Second, the ride will surprise you with some very scary and very
realistic dinosaurs attempting to have you for dinner. From start to finish, this ride has the
thrills of the most extreme rides, but not the extreme motion.
#3---Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom). This ride looks very scary from the outside,
with the people in boats plummeting down the waterfall, screaming all the
way. That last plunge is the only thing
that would make this ride questionable, but I can assure you that the dip,
although sometimes losing your breath during it, does not rise to the level of
avoiding it for too much motion. The
majority of the ride is a gentle cruise down the river being entertained by the
delightful characters of Uncle Remus. On
the water and in the darkened cave out of the hot sun, you will be so relaxed
and cooled off that the fall at the end will not diminish, but excite, so that
the complete ride is a joy to behold.
#2---Test Track (Epcot). With this ride advertised as the fastest in
all of Disney World, you would think it had to be one for us motion-challenged
to avoid. Not true at all. This is a wonderful ride. In the early stage, you are part of the
testing that automobiles go through. Extreme heat, extreme cold, stopping and
starting are some of the tests. There
are some thrills even here, as at one point you feel like you are going to
crash into a wall. But all this is just
to get you ready for the best part of the ride----the outside speed you hit
once you exit the test building. This
straight-ahead speed is great and is muted only by some gentle curves, yet
still maintaining a high rate of speed.
None of this afflicts our motion sensitivity, and at the end you feel
completely exhilarated.
#1---Soarin
(Epcot). Without a doubt, this is the
best ride in all of Disney World, not only on my list. The fact that the ride can make my list is an
outright bonus. Even though this ride
makes you feel like you are on a glider plane high over the land, you can allay
your fears beforehand. All you have to
do is to look at how high your seat will go off the floor (only a few
feet). Then you know that no matter what
your senses tell you, you are safely within a couple of feet from the floor. But, to totally enjoy the ride, you should
let your senses go with the flow and just imagine yourself gliding over that
beautiful scenery. The ride is so
realistic that they even have smells of oranges when you pass over a
grove. You will pass very low over
streams and almost dive into the ocean, but the motion in all of it is very
gentle. My only complaint about this
ride is it’s much too short. I realize
that with the already lengthy lines, if they made it longer, you could never
get on. But, I can dream, right?
That’s my list, folks. I know that a lot of great rides have to get
left off, but that is the nature of us that can’t tolerate the extreme motions. Of course, there are many, many more that we
can get on and enjoy, but these are the top 5 that come closest to the best
thrill rides.
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