Roller coasters
They hold pride of place in most parks. As a rule, you can see them from afar. And hear them too - screams carry for a mile around. But, in our view, roller coasters are not the most thrilling kind of ride. After all, everyone in childhood slid down railings and tumbled head over heels. Here it's roughly the same, only far safer. And people scream mostly out of tradition.
The class of a roller coaster is determined not by height, speed, or number of loops, but by its decoration and styling. The highest class is enclosed coasters, coasters under a dome, where some fantastic world is created - outer space, a fairy-tale dragon's cave, or an enchanted forest.
The most interesting rides based on roller coasters are called Space Mountain. Such rides are found at the Disneylands in California, Florida, Paris, and Tokyo. The flight passes through spherical halls onto whose walls cosmic worlds are projected. This is complemented by laser effects, neon corridors, and real flames when you have to fly 'through the sun'.
Ride-throughs
They are very popular with park visitors. They just don't have such crazy speeds, and the people sitting in the cars have time to take a closer look at the virtual life going on around them. Ride-throughs can be cute and innocent, with adorable mechanical animals dancing around, or they can drag you down to a basement of vampires, and then - hang on. Ride-throughs can be land-based or water-based, and sometimes suspended in the air, like the ET attraction at Universal Studios parks, where you are offered to fly on bicycles over cities and forests.
The coolest ride-through is at Universal parks in Los Angeles and Orlando. It's the famous attraction Kongfrontation. New York, through which King Kong strolls, is completely indistinguishable from real night Manhattan. It even seems that the skyscrapers here are full-scale - an incomprehensible effect of expanded space! And here comes King Kong himself. He, of course, grabs helicopters with his huge paw, destroys everything in his path, throws cars off a bridge, scorches you with his banana breath, tries to eat your pathetic little car...
Simulators
A special class of rides. Here the flight through fantastic worlds happens in your imagination. The chair you sit in doesn't go anywhere, it just shakes and jiggles, while on a huge screen in front of you everything flies and flips over. The motion effect is complete and thrilling. Here it's not customary to scream - after all, it's just a movie. But people scream anyway. Simulators can take you anywhere - inside the human body (Wonders of Life, at the Epcot park in Florida) or into the mouth of a sea monster (Sea Odissey, at Port Aventura park between the Spanish cities of Tarragona and Salou).
We recommend the attraction Galaxi at the amusement park near Osaka. There the screen is spherical, it surrounds viewers on all sides - there is simply nowhere to escape from the fantastic reality. At the same time, the seats swing with a large amplitude, and a chill emanates from outer space.
Drop rides
The most thrilling of rides. Unlucky visitors are dragged to a colossal height and 'dropped' down. The thing is that the vertical speed here is greater than in ordinary free fall - the cars with the petrified audience are accelerated by special mechanisms. It feels like your heart moves somewhere into your throat for a while.
A very good drop ride is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at the MGM-Sudios park in Florida. Actually, it's a synthesis of a ride-through and a drop ride. The attraction is an abandoned hotel inhabited by ghosts. Through dark corridors you move from one nightmare to another until you find yourself in a doomed elevator. In total darkness the elevator plummets from a height of 50 meters, then soars back up, and then suddenly a wall 'collapses' in front of you, you teeter on the edge of an abyss, and then - down again!
Horror rides
There they create horror around you using various effects. At the same time you, like the other unfortunates, are firmly strapped to your seat and helpless.
The scariest horror ride is ExtraTerroristiral ('Alien Terrorists') in the Magic Kingdom park near Orlando. It is based on the films about 'aliens' - cruel insect-like monsters from another planet. First, the audience is shown an 'alien' under a glass bell, then the situation kind of gets out of control (a standard trick of horror rides), the monster breaks the glass, the electricity goes out, and then it begins. The monster heads straight for you, breathes hotly right on your neck, touches you with nasty tentacles, shakes your seat, sprays something in your face (must be poisonous saliva!). In short, you'll be scared silly.
3D rides
Rides based on 3D projection. The sense of presence here is achieved with special glasses that make everything on the screen three-dimensional and bring it closer. As a rule, these are shows based on various well-known films and cartoons.
The Terminator at the California park of Universal Studios makes visitors become participants in a war of cyborgs. The action involves live actors and gradually becomes more and more virtual and fantastically realistic. The floor shakes, tracer bullets whistle overhead, laser cannons aim straight at your face, nasty metal spiders are about to trample you. Explosions thunder all around, burning plasma spits, the hall fills with smoke, it becomes unbearably hot - this will never, never end!.. But it all ends well. The good guys win, and the bad guys burn alive before your eyes.
There's a simple secret: when it gets too scary, you just take off your glasses - and what is happening turns into an ordinary movie. But then - why did you come here?!
Shows
A modern amusement park is unthinkable without shows. It may be an ordinary song-and-dance performance with a national flavor. Or it may be a fantastic spectacle with explosions, fights, disasters, and even natural cataclysms. Such shows feature all the special effects that technological progress has brought to modern filmmaking, along with live actors. And you also see the work of stuntmen firsthand.
It is simply impossible to describe the new evening laser-pyrotechnic show at the MGM-Studious park in Florida. It is called Fantasmic ("Phantasms"). Good fairy-tale characters fight evil ones and work magic before the eyes of the audience.
Non-stop fun
Rides of different classes can be recognized in advance, even in the queue. With roller coasters everything is clear—they stick out above the parks with incredible zigzags or high cones (if the coasters are hidden under a roof). For a ride-through, the queue moves evenly, while for swinging rides, on approaching the attraction visitors are first let in as a large group, then divided into several "groups" to be seated in swinging rows or cabins. For 3D shows, you have to wait for the start of the session in a common holding area. And shows begin according to a schedule that is on the amusement park maps.
By the way, about maps. The most interesting and sophisticated attractions there are often marked with special icons—something like the attraction's own logos. In American parks, they also have sponsors—well-known companies that helped the park build the attraction as their own advertising.
And also, about queues. They can be very, very long. Especially at the height of the season—that is, in summer or during Christmas holidays.
At the same time, queues in amusement parks are the most fun and interesting in the world. As a rule, the "labyrinths" for queues are themselves decorated in some astonishing way. All kinds of entertainment are provided there—from various moving dummies to TV screens that introduce you to the upcoming adventure. Sometimes the queue is entertained by live actors who will later take part in the show. In general, it is often difficult to tell: are you still standing in line or has the ride already started?
Nevertheless, take a tip: in the queues of amusement parks it is very convenient to have a snack, without spending time on food.
In addition, many parks are equipped with special display boards that show the current time spent in queues for various attractions at that very moment—watch and plan accordingly. Toward the end of the day, queues usually decrease, and even the most popular attractions become more accessible.
The main thing is to clearly understand: in amusement parks, you don't walk. Here you run with a map in your hands from one attraction to another. Visiting such parks is like an orienteering competition—otherwise you won't get everything done. After all, you didn't come here to rest, but to have fun!