Can you actually become desensitised to The Giant Drop?

[coasterdude44]

For a rough estimate I’ve ridden The Giant Drop about 25-30 times total in my life since I first rode it as a kid in 2006. I’m currently doing a hospitality course at Dreamworld working in the Preston Campbell cafe at the back of the park and usually on my way out I’ll give it a ride. Over the past 2-3 weeks I’ve rode it about 10 times and one thing that I’ve noticed is that it doesn’t give me the same sense of fear it used to.

 

Over a few years now I’ve noticed that my sense of overall thrill and anxiety (healthy of course has diminished with every time I’ve been on it (though I still enjoy the view the same)

Can someone share just how many times they have been on this ride and has their experience of it been blunted over the years and that if you ride it frequently enough that you can actually feel next to nothing when you’re at the top. I just want to know if I should distance myself from it for a while because I have a concern that enough rides could cause a desensitisation and diminish my overall enjoyment of not just The Giant Drop but other rides in Australia because it is in my opinion the most intense ride in the country and probably still will be for many years.

[zacsta_1997]

I’ve ridden it a number of times. Usually 5-10 times a visit.  I don’t get scared up the top. But the drop always takes my breath away. 
I wouldn’t say you’re desensitised, more the fact that you’re aware of the feeling. 
maybe a bit of a break may help. But I wouldn’t stress. As it’s an amazing rides and deserves to be ridden again and again and again. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

There is hope for @Zanstabar after all...

I used to ride Space Probe repeatedly when I worked at Wonderland. If I wasn't doing a closing shift, i'd always get changed and head back into the park for a few cycles of Probe and Demon. The drop is still a rush, but I don't think i've ever felt any differently about it.

Granted, GD is taller, but I suppose psychologically any thrill repeated enough can become normalised. Try Skydiving maybe?

[elemist]

It's like anything really - do it enough times and it becomes less scary

[StingRay]

I am most definitely desensitised to it. I have ridden it 7 times and that's it for me.

[Guest 239]

Thrill rides are mostly scary because of cognitive dissonance in your mind. In a nutshell the mind is battling between rational and irrational thoughts. On one hand it believes that the attraction is completely safe through rational deduction:

• This ride runs multiple times a day, every day, for years without fail.
• The engineers who built this know what they're doing.
• I'm harnessed in so I can't do something stupid.
• etc.

But on the other it believes that you're in some kind of danger:

• What if this time it fails?
• What if my harness flies open?
• What if for some reason I have a medical condition that I don't know about and I die!?
• etc.

Basically what might be happening with you is that over time you're no longer casting doubts on whether the experience is safe because  through experience you're answering all the questions that your irrational mind is presenting. It's similar to when you first start driving and everything is terrifying but after a few years driving is literally nothing.

I have the same fear as you that once I conquer the Giant Drop then I won't find anything thrilling anymore because my bar will have been raised so high that I'll need to take @AlexB 's suggestion and jump out of a plane. Because of that I usually leave riding the giant drop to the end of a Gold Coast trip and spend my entire time working up to it and psyching myself up for the ride. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

14 hours ago, CaptainLazerGuns said:

I won't find anything thrilling anymore because my bar will have been raised so high that I'll need to take @AlexB 's suggestion and jump out of a plane.

I'll happily be up there to give you a push Dr. Dom!

[technodisney]

Not the Giant Drop. 
 

But when I did my ICP at WDW earlier this year I went on Soarin countless times before my shifts. 
 

Never did it have the same thrill and joy from the first few times. But it became more of a relaxing experience. Still was super fun, but something just changes when you go on it many time. 

[Jdude95]

The difference between GD and Soarin is that GD is a sudden argument with gravity. Soarin is a cinematic experience. It's easy to get bored of watching the same movie over and over. Harder to get bored when you're plummeting 400ft to the ground. 

[FoolishMortal999]

On 09/12/2020 at 3:35 PM, technodisney said:

Not the Giant Drop. 
 

But when I did my ICP at WDW earlier this year I went on Soarin countless times before my shifts. 
 

Never did it have the same thrill and joy from the first few times. But it became more of a relaxing experience. Still was super fun, but something just changes when you go on it many time. 

How can you compare the Giant Drop to Soarin’? They’re two completely different attractions. It’d make sense if you compared the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to the Giant Drop.
 

I could ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and it’d be a different experience each time whereas you know what to expect on the Giant Drop.

Edited December 10, 2020 by FoolishMortal999

[Gazza]

You can compare them in terms of getting desensitised to it.