Associated parks:
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The Experience of a Lifetime
Thrill Rides Put to the Test
Let me start of by saying! WOW! This was an awesome experience, which I can easily say was one of the happiest times of my recent life.
I figured I might as well start from the beginning (I heard it helps), I am Peter and my teammate was Crystal (team yellow). We live in a suburb of Cleveland Ohio.
In mid February Crystal’s mother found a link to the Discovery Channels website that contained an open audition for a roller coaster show. All that was needed was an audition tape, easier said than done. I personally thought the video was horrible, it was a video of us pretended to ride on a roller coaster while we talked about ourselves and it ended with a shot of us outside in the snow complaining (we are good at that).
So a few weeks later out of nowhere Crystal calls me very ecstatic, saying that we made it into the top 12! This was enough to make me freak out! I was jumping around calling all my friends…I mean come on the video was bad (they planned of showing the tape in the show but I am writing this before it airs).
With this came things we had to do like fill out a questionnaire, receive a physical and just a lot of emails back and forth…
Then it happened! March 10th the producer of the show called Crystal’s house telling her that we won! I spent about an hour just running around the house trying to call people, I made the mistake of going to tell my brother in his room that we won for that he was very ill, which later in the week made me very ill but that’s another story.
School the next day was a euphoric high! My American Heritage teacher gave me a hug…it was the best day!
After two weeks of emails back and forth to the producers of the show (Termite Art Productions) we were off!
March 24th- early flight from the ghetto Cleveland airport, the gate we were at was being renovated so there was no ceiling tiles, lights were dangling, birds swooping and windows covered…flight was pretty boring worked on homework for a few hours. Layover in Phoenix we were delayed for two hours, no plane. Around 5 PM we finally arrived at LAX, during rush hour…being this the first time I have been to California (or out of the time zone) I was amazed, this place is so beautiful. In Ohio we have farms, trees, Amish and a green creepy lake (Lake Erie).
Seeing the exit signs for Six Flags Magic Mountain, WOW! Our hotel was the Hilton at Six Flags; the place is so nice (not to mention free!) We had a gross dinner at the hotel, but we met the host of the show while we were eating, John Pullum. We also met one of the teams but I will talk about them in a minute.
Knowing that tomorrow was going to be a long day we tried to go to bed early, that wasn’t happening. So with the help of a video camera Crystal and I made our rounds of the hotel; taping funny things as we went.
We were in bed by 9 PM.
March 25th- trying to be ready and in the lobby by 5:30 is easier to say then to do. So we all made it in time thankfully. There we met all the other teams-
Team Red: Carleyne and daughter Maija from Boston, we became closest to them! They were the funniest people to be around, our teams were the closest of all of them.
Team Blue: Graeme and his son Colby from Canada.
Team Green: Lupe and Jackie from Arizona
Team Orange: Will and Brent from Houston, Texas
They crew was late picking us up for the park. So around 7:30 we arrived at the park (which some may know is across the street, I could see X, Superman and the Tower from my room)
First we received our shirts; yeah we were the piss yellow but oh well. Then it was time to put on our microphones it felt so weird to know that they were always listening to us but the quickly passes…
Ok enough with the boring stuff let just skip to the stuff you all want to read about…
The first competition was the “baby stroller race.” Ok when you are at this amazing park that happens to be still on winter schedule and is closed the last thing you want to do is push a stroller. But hey! So thankfully Crystal is small, so she fit in the stroller rather well…and we race…dear god I was just hoping that I wouldn’t tip the stroller over and kill her…Team Blue was so far ahead it was rather sad, Graeme has the biggest leg muscles, they were rather scary…So Team Blue came in first place, team Yellow in second (us), team red followed by team Green and lastly team Orange.
So they took a couple of takes of John (Host) telling us our places in the race…
He then told us about our next competition which was a two parter, the rock wall or turbo bungee? We had to decide who was going to do what one. I ended up doing the rock wall; did I mention I hate heights? Oh well, I came in 4th place…HA! I would list the rest of the standings but I forget them, I will update this after the show airs.
Next was the Turbo Bungee. This consists of a trampoline and bungee cords attached to you making it possible to do multiple flips. Team Green did amazing! Jackie was awesome, of course it helped that she was a gymnast, NOT FAIR! Just kidding. Crystal did really well in this, unfortunately since they made the time limit two minutes it was too much, the heat plus she was working herself so much. So after she was done they had the medic check her out. Just some water and rest had her back to normal in a short time.
Thankfully it was lunchtime!
After a catered lunch, which wasn’t very good. It was off to the Dive Devil! WOW! I had never been on one of these before. This was one of those really big swings that are way too overpriced. The point of this was to drop water balloons on targets as were flew over top of them. I decided that I would pull the cord that would make us fall. WHAT A RUSH! On the second pass we dropped our balloons…it didn’t go to well, I think I hit only the 10 points marker. Remember when I said I became sick because of my brother? Yeah, well it came back into play here before our second attempt. I had a lil bloody nose. I hope they didn’t show this on the show. The helmet cam I am sure has a lovely shot of it. When I dropped my one balloon over the target, a cameraman had a close up of my face, well I missed and I mouthed S#&*. I guess he found this funny and he came down and told me. I hope they show this, I know they wont but hey! Ok back to the game. On the second attempt (each time had two tries) I hit the 50 points but it bounced so I don’t think they counted it (they never told us our point standings so when it does air I will find out the scores with you). Crystal on the other hand hit the sign that read “Thrill Rides Put To The Test” which was Velcro over the entrance sign, so she knocked that off.
When everyone had finished his or her turn oddly enough we taped the opening of this game. So it was odd to have to react like we were excited/ scared of the ride after we already rode it.
So when we were walking back to the “base camp” (Foods ETC) one of the teams asked about what they saw me do earlier in the day. This made the host curious along with the production crew. Well they made me show it…its nothing really, I put both legs over my head then after that I did my weird one-handed clap (when you see the show you will understand). Well Crystal then too showed her talent (LOL is this talent?) She held onto her leg and jumped over it. The part that is funny is that they tapped it! I hope they use it!
There was supposed to be another game but the sun wasn’t cooperating, so that was postponed until the morning. It was 7:30 pm and it was a long, tiring day. Little did we know that the worst (not really worst but most tiring) was yet to come!
Back at the hotel we decided NOT to eat there again so we walked next door for dinner…blah blah blah boring stuff…
When we were getting ready I took out the video camera again, which was becoming a sort of video diary. We couldn’t move we were so tired and it was only 9 by then. By 9:30 I was asleep. Before any of you question rooms, I was in a room with my mother (chaperon) and Crystal had her own room.
March 26th: We were all in the lobby by 6 am.
Same stuff as the day before, new shirts, microphone, etc
We were all off for the Spin Out (rotor), which was a good sight to see, seeing that we didn’t ride any true rides the day before. The object of this game was to ride the Spin Out, after we exit the ride to spin around 7 times, walk across a wooden beam and finally release the balloon. I hate rides like this…oh well
With helmet cams on we entered the rotor (Crystal and I)…the ride lasted about two minutes, during this time some of the teams were trying to make us look up to make us sick. Not falling for it. I have a feeling my face looked very odd (not that it doesn’t already) during this ride. So the ride ended. We ran down the platform and spun around 7 times, it’s hard to do this when you are already dizzy. Walked across the beam and released the balloon. When the helmet cam was taken off of me I was so dizzy and thirsty. We did ok on this one, I believe we came in second but once again they keep the scores to themselves.
On to X!
They filmed a place setting scene and stating that two teams were to be eliminated after X! We were in 4th and Green was in 5th. This didn’t surprise me at all. Oh well! On to X!
The object of this was to hold a plastic cup with a rubber ball in it and to RETURN with the ball. When it was found out that Team Green had been on this ride once before they let all of us ride together once. This ride is just AMAZING!!! I don’t know how to explain it. I was completely disoriented as soon as we started leaving the station. LOL we are going backwards. (Give me some credit we didn’t see any test runs)
Time to play. Only one of the teams before us actually kept the ball and that was Team Green (Jackie). So it wasn’t looking good for us. We sat in our seats, 4 cameras were watching us on the train. We were dispatched. WAIT! They didn’t give us the cup or ball! So they stopped us as we left the station. It was a sign of things to come.
As we went up the hill the pressure was building we knew if we didn’t keep the ball we were out of the game. The first little dip went ok. Then it happened. The 90-degree drop. We both lost the ball at the same time and we both screamed “S%&*” LOL what a family show. So after we lost the balls we just enjoyed the rest of the ride. As we were pulling into the station Crystal said “Mother F****** A” I kept laughing and reminded her that is was a “family show.”
When we exited the ride the sound guy (he was awesome as was the whole crew) saying, “May I quote you? Mother F******* A?” LOL then the host found out and we taped a segment where Crystal whispers in his ear what she said, he freaks out, whispers it in my ear. He then commented that they are going have to censor the show…I added that they are going to censor me too! LOL
We knew we were out. We found out that if you held the cup sideways that the ball would stay in. Team Green just squeezed the cup, hey it worked for them, I should have done that, but they told us that if we crack the cup we loose right away.
Lunch-gross
Superman: before this one even started we were eliminated along with Team Red. Hey don’t feel bad. Right after we were eliminated we went on Superman without playing the stupid game.
The remaining teams had to throw a ball back and forth to each other. WOW! Team Green won this one too. During this time we (team Red and Yellow) just sat there. So about an hour later they finally finished. Do you know how hard it is to be in an empty amusement park and not being able to ride all the rides? IT’S HARD!
It took them awhile for the next and final game. Goliath. The remaining teams ate a plate if sushi. After this they were supposed to go ride Goliath and not puke. AHA that ever so pesky sun decided to retire. So the production was forced to go rent lights and place some lights on the Goliath train. This took two hours. I felt so bad for the remaining teams. They just sat there. If they had to go to the bathroom a referee was to go with them to make sure they didn’t puke. Here is where it gets interesting. One of the producers approached the eliminated teams saying that we might have to go back to our hotel for a little while to avoid child labor laws. That made us so mad because we wanted to leave a few hours before so we could go swimming. But we were told that we were needed. So it was about 7:30 and we were back at the hotel and at 8 pm they returned to pick us back up.
We came back to the park. By then they had ordered enough pizza for everyone (there was about 100 people there total). They had yet to start the game. When it did it was about 9 pm. Now the teams had to eat plates of food before the rode Goliath. They had 5 minutes to eat a congealed plate of nachos. Ride. Return then eat a huge burger and fries in 5 minutes and ride. None of them finished the burger.
Now it was time to work my magic. See it was about 10 pm and technically it was my birthday in Ohio. So, yes that’s right I made a comment like “for my birthday I want us all to ride Goliath.” This was so cool. They didn’t tape it since we had a lot of the crew riding along. It was so cool to see everyone laughing and screaming. What could be better? Oh I know! Re-ride!
When we got off of Goliath all the waiting and confusion was worth it!
It was now time to tape the awards presentation. 1st place: Team Green, 2nd place: Team Orange, 3rd place: Team Blue, 4th place: Team Red and yes 5th place: Team Yellow.
Team Green won a trip back to SFMM two weeks later to ride Scream when it opened (this is part of the show). The rest of us received free Season Passes.
Problem with the season passes is that they had to be processed at SFMM and being in Ohio makes that quite impossible. So we sent them back and we are now waiting for SFMM to send us a document that will allow us to receive a season pass at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure.
Anyways. We got back to the hotel a little before 12 am. On the ride back to the hotel everyone in the van sang to me happy birthday (though it wasn’t my birthday yet). The producer of the show, Kiku, offered to take us all out to breakfast in the morning, sadly we had to be out of the hotel by 8 am to get to LAX. So our flight left at 12 to Phoenix we had a half hour layover, which is a very short amount of time to get across the airport. As we came to the gate they were starting to board. The flight back to Cleveland was depressing…eww Cleveland. There was one highlight though. We flew over Cedar Point. It was hard to see because it was dark outside (duh!). We landed at a few minutes before 9 pm (eastern time).
Well I guess that’s it. Excuse me for the horrible grammar for I am sure there is a lot of it. But hey! I’m over it. Thank you for reading
*** This post was edited by petie 5/27/2003 7:46:37 PM ***
Yes I do. I do it all the time, I know how you felt.
Thank you for the trip report. It filled a few holes. I jsut watched the show I wasnt overly impressed, but it was diffrent.
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"Would you like a sports bottle with that? Its only an extra 2.35$ and your soul. For the extra cost you will receive the privilege to fill your cup with soda for only an additional $3.00. And if you act right now we'll throw in a straw (may be broken) an
-Danny
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Coaster Insomniacs
SFDL Ultimate Guide
Amusement Graffix International
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Kevin Stone
NoLimits Roller Coaster Simulator
http://www.nolimitscoaster.de
Nice Report. Closed old holes and opened new ones. It seems like on the Dive Devil, they combined parts of both tries into one. I liked the part when they all rode Goliath for your birthday. Nice Report! :)
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Free Falls on Drop Zone: 5!
Batwing Flights: 7!
Superman: Ride of Steel Airtime-age: 10!
I also replied to the big topic about the show in General Buzz...Here.
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Free Falls on Drop Zone: 5!
Batwing Flights: 7!
Superman: Ride of Steel Airtime-age: 10!
*edit there are now 12 pics*
*** This post was edited by petie 6/13/2003 10:20:51 PM ***
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