The Claw

One of the attractions of coming up to Queensland to visit Nick, Ramona and the boys was of course the theme parks on the Gold Coast. After much research by Caroline it was decided that Dreamworld would be the park of choice and with the weather not particularly conducive to much else we’ve spent a significant amount of time over the past week.

One of the good things about the park this time around is that all the kids are now tall enough to go on any ride that they choose. Of course, being tall enough to ride the Tower of Terror and the like doesn’t of course mean that the little pink thing will be enamored of the idea which means that there’s still an element of family splitting involved to try and keep everyone happy. Michael doesn’t really want to be caught dead on the Madagascar ride and Emily sure as hell wasn’t going near some of the scarier rides.

Back in 2007 we went to Disneyland and one of the rides that I had been really looking forward to was Space Mountain. It’s a roller coaster in the dark and Emily was just tall enough to go on and so we dragged her on. I spent that entire ride with Emily screaming and crying in my ear as I tried to reassure her that she was going to be ok and that the world wasn’t ending. I didn’t get a chance to experience that ride properly until 3 years later at Disney World. What it did do however was to put a significant dent in Emily’s willingness to go on anything that she thought might be scary.

So fast forward back to the present day and during our first visit to Dreamworld for the trip, we come up to the ride known as the claw. Emily agreed to go on the ride with Michael, Sam, Thomas and I, but as we drew nearer and nearer to the front of the line, Emily’s willingness was evaporating fast. Being the good father that I am, I talked her into going anyway.

Lets just say that that didn’t pan out particularly well and I was immediately reminded of the Space Mountain experience, thinking that we’d never get her on anything else for the rest of the trip. It was certainly the case for the rest of day 1.

The next day was a juggling act but on our third day, somewhere and somehow, Caroling convinced Emily that the Buzzsaw wasn’t such a bad ride despite it rising some 43m in the air, suspending you upside down and going backwards (which Emily had declared the worst part of any ride). I had seen the past coming back to haunt the future.

I was to be surprised. Emily didn’t pull out at the last moment and didn’t refuse to never go on another ride ever again. In fact a day later, she also decided to go on the Tower of Terror II despite the previous declaration that she wouldn’t ever do it because she hated going backwards and was scared of heights. She even decided that it was the best ride ever and insisted on doing it again immediately after getting off!

Seems that we might just have another little thrill seeker on our hands.