For two summers I played a gig at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. Besides being one of the last amusement parks to offer live entertainment, Cedar Point's big attraction is roller coasters. Every couple of years they boast a bigger, faster, leaner, meaner, more upside-downer coaster ride unlike anything the world has ever seen. When I first started work there, I had never ridden any type of roller coaster. I was too afraid to even try. Needless to say, by the end of my time there, I had gotten over my fear by a long shot. I mean, let's face it. There is nothing else to do in Sandusky (a.k.a. The Armpit Of The Midwest) except ride the coasters. It's one of the few job perks we had.
Anyway, it's been a long time since I've been on any kind of thrill ride so you can imagine my trepidation as Ian, Blair, and I made plans to experience the Aquaventure park at Atlantis in Nassau.
Aquaventure boasts over 7 water slides of various speeds, zillions of pools, a lazy/rapids river, aquariums, various marine life feeding pools, food, sun, and fun. It's part of the GIANT Atlantis resort that I visited earlier with Fran and Mort.
Since Ian owns a small backpack, we loaded him up as pack mule to carry sunscreen, ID, cash, and cameras. The guys a trooper. He didn't complain once…and I went into that pack a million times that day. Catching a taxi from the Nassau port to Atlantis was easy. Feeling comfortable riding in the taxi is another thing. I'm sure this isn't right and I'll have to verify it later, but, it appears that there are no traffic signals in Nassau and very few actual traffic laws. Drivers pilot their vehicles with seemingly no regard for other cars. There appears to be some sort of system where faster moving vehicles have the right of way. It also doesn't help that everyone drives on the left side of the road as opposed to the right in the States like I'm used to.
When we arrived at the resort we quickly found the desk to purchase tickets. We got a hefty crew discount and ended up only paying about 2/3 normal ticket purchase price. After renting a locker to relieve Ian of his pack mule duties, we made our way to the tallest and fastest slide in the park: The Abyss. The sign at the top of the ride said: "Do not participate in this ride if you have fear of dark places, high speeds, enclosed spaces, or heights."
As it turns out, I'm afraid of ALL of those things. That didn't stop me, tho. I'm here to report that I went on every water slide in the Aquaventure park. I'm also here to report that I apparently screamed like a little girl while doing so. BUT…at least I did it them all!
Aquaventure has a "lazy river" area as well. For those not familiar, this is a typical water park ride where guests sit in tubes and relax as a slow current floats them down a man made "river" of sorts. Aquaventure adds to this experience with designating certain areas of the "river" as rapids areas. Here the water flows faster and riders get the pleasure of shooting through the rapids spinning around on the tube. As long as you don't bang your foot or head on the rock walls around you, this is pretty fun. There was an added feature to the "river" that I'd never seen before: a wave generator. While floating slowly down stream, waves are created behind you and come by floating you up in the air and splashing you with water. Pretty fun. Bair, Ian, and I were floating along and a wave passed under us. We survived it fine, but, a woman ahead of us was capsized by the wave. Ian proceeded to point and laugh at this poor woman completely without shame. I've literally never seen anyone have so much fun at the expense of another's misfortune. It was hilarious. She was fine and was laughing about it as well. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
The final ride of the day was the signature slide of the park. Two water slides that take you through a shark tank. The first one we tried, "Leap of Faith" was so fast that I didn't see any sharks whatsoever. The name says it all about that ride. The second one, "Serpent Slide" was slower and ended up splashing down so that we had about one minute floating through the shark tank. Pretty cool to be that close to those animals.
All in all, we had a great day. As they say in Ghostbusters, "We came. We saw. We kicked it's ass!" Actually, to be fair, Atlantis may have kicked my ass a little bit. I definitely left a piece of my butt cheek on one of those slides. A word of caution: when riding a water slide that requires you to sit in a tube…keep your butt above tube level. Enjoy the vid.
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