Around 1999-2000 - I remember being scared of the animatronics and effects on the Bermuda Triangle until my dad said that they were friendly aliens, after that I was fine and enjoyed the drop/splash at the end.
Years passed where I thought he just made up the friendly aliens story to calm me down, but when I went back on the ride in 2008, I was surprised to see that they were actually friendly aliens helping us get out of the volcano. The feels were quite strong that day.
I also rode Vikings revenge at that time but the memory isn't as clear. I remember being intrigued by the flowing water flumes in the station, and for some reason I remember rounding one of the corners in the castle more than I remember the actual drop.
I also remember riding the Wild Mouse at Luna Park pretty soon after the place reopened in 2004. My first roller coaster and safe to say I still regard it as the scariest one I've been on.
Not so much nostalgic compared to some of the posts on here, but when I visited the Gold Coast in 2008, that's when I made most of the memories of parks that I will cherish.
- Riding the Corkscrew with white track and red cars.
- Seeing the Dolphin show at SW
- The batman ride at MW
- The Cyclone at DW
- The Claw
My best and most favourite memory is riding Wild West Falls. Being caught unaware by the reverse drop. Plunging out into that beautiful environment, it's just a completely different world on the other side of that drop, a. Riding WWF made me realise that there is more to parks than just having the fastest/tallest rides, and that message has really stuck with me since then.
Superman Escape also gets an honourable mention. I already knew all the statistics, I knew exactly what to expect and when everything was going to happen, but there was one thing I didn't know, and that was whether I would like the ride or not. I knew there was nothing to be scared of, that the ride was completely safe, but I would have been lying if I wasn't anxious about it. What if I didn't like the ride? That would be the worst thing that could possibly happen. All those hours I spent watching roller coasters on the internet just to ride one in real life and hate it? I wouldn't know who I was as a person. I wasn't scared of the ride at all, I was just scared of myself. Because of this, I didn't ride it in 2008. I went home, kicking myself that I didn't ride it (I was only 11 to be fair, but still hated myself).
I went back two years later in 2010 with a friend who had been on it before. There was nothing stopping me this time. Got into the park and first thing we did was line up for Superman. I was thinking to myself, "what will the launch feel like?" I knew there was going to be force, but I also knew it wasn't going to hurt at all, this led to me seriously underestimating how powerful the launch would be.
My friend was adamant that we ride in the front row. Anxiously, I obliged, I mean, he had ridden it before so he must have known best. So we get the first door, and I hear the train roll into the station. The door opens and there it is, the train that I could recognise from 100 metres away, up close and personal. We went and sat down, him on the left me on the right.
Once the harnesses were down and locked, he confessed all. He told me in a panicked state that he actually hadn't ridden it before, and he suddenly decided that sitting in the front row probably wasn't the best idea. Suddenly I was the more confident person in the row, but that hardly mattered now because we were both going to ride it either way.
So we get to that part where you round the corner and the light at the end of the tunnel is visible (as well as that glaringly obvious piece of track above the tunnel but we'll ignore that and carry on worrying about the launch.) My friend says to me, "Believe in Superman, he will protect us." We had a laugh in the moment, and from then on I knew it was all in the mind, I knew I was going to enjoy it because I told myself I was going to enjoy it. Then the ride launched.
Was it forceful? Holy Guacamole was it forceful. I was amazed that there could be so much force with absolutely no pain, truly an incredible experience. The way my vision seemed to widen as my eyeballs were pushed back into my head. Seconds later we were 40 metres up in the air, and without any time to ponder we were at the bottom again in the first bend. The airtime hills were great, something I also wasn't expecting to be so forceful, complete ejection from your seat and up into your harness.
Safe to say that ever since that launch I have never looked back.