LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN
Your rollercoaster days are over I was told... but I’m back and raring to go
IT was time to get back on the horse. A year ago last June, I went to PortAventura near Barcelona in Spain to ride Shambhala, the tallest rollercoaster in Europe. Long before I got the chance to, though, I found myself crawling back to the hotel in agony and, a few hours later, undergoing emergency surgery for a strangulated umbilical hernia.
My rollercoaster days, the doctor told me, were over. This was hugely disappointing. Though I’ve never been a fan of heights, and used to close my eyes as the train chugged up the first hill, I found the speed and the drops exhilarating, and over the years managed to ride some of the best coasters in the world.
Earlier this year, complications from that original surgery saw me back in hospital, first to treat an infection, then to have surgery to correct the mishap that resulted from the first time under the knife.
On June 8, coincidentally a year to the day since the first surgery, the consultant told me my recovery was terrific.
‘Does this mean I can go on rollercoasters again?’ I asked, more in j est t han in hope.
And he replied with the sweet-
est words in the English language. ‘I’m not going to place any restrictions on you,’ he said, smiling.
And that’s how, last Friday, I found myself in Universal Studios Orlando in Florida queuing up for the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, a coaster with a vertical lift hill, a sharp drop of 51 metres and a top speed of 105km/h. This might sound ridiculous to you, but long before I boarded I started to get emotional and by the time I was climbing the first hill, tears were streaming down my face. Not only was I doing something I thought I never would do again, but after a year of health scares and often agonising pain, it felt like a circle had been squared. Not only was I back on the horse, it was a bucking bronco.
The 90-odd seconds of the ride went by in a flash and when I got off, I was elated, and immediately hungry for more.
I was on a one- day, two-park pass that also i ncluded the next- door Islands Of Adventure theme park, where most of the white-knuckle rides are. So I quickly made my way through the Studios, bypassing rides I’ve done before – the best of which are the 3D Minions Mayhem movie (though there seemed to be more Minion mayhem in Dublin while I was abroad) and the Transformers 3D ride, which is exceptional.
Since I last was in Florida two years ago, Universal Studios has debuted Diagon Alley, a new section of The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter, so I poked my nose in there (terrific!) before taking the Hogwarts Express to Islands Of Adventure.
FROM there, I covered old ground (also passing by Skull Island: Reign Of Kong, a new attraction under construction and due to open next summer – already, it looks sensational), revisiting many past favourites – the terrific splashdown at the end of a boat journey around Jurassic Park; another soaking on Popeye And Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges, a r aging rapids ride; the awesome Amazing Adventures Of Spider-Man, another 3D simulator recently upgraded with bright digital reworking of what used to be fairly dim graphics; and, finally, the daddy of them all, the Incredible Hulk Coaster.
They could build another thousand coasters around the world and this always would be my favourite. You are shot up the first hill into a zero gravity roll that turns you upside down as you are propelled forward. You enter a cobra roll, so called because it looks like a snake’s head, before entering a full loop that exits into a tunnel under a lake. After that, there are more loops and corkscrews, for a total of seven inversions on over a kilometre of track at speeds up to 110km/h.
Over the years (and I first rode it in 2000), I reckon that I’ve been on the Hulk over 30 times and I never tire of it. It plasters a smile on my face that takes hours to erase; I even know where the cameras are that take the on-ride pictures and try to look as non- chalant as possible as we pass by, just to show I’m the coolest boy in class.
When I’m on it, I feel invincible, confronting fear, dicing with death (well, sort of, but not really) and vibrantly alive. Trust me – I felt that way for long enough in a hospital bed earlier this year, and revelling in the experience, voluntarily and in 30-degree heat, is a far better environment in which to contemplate it.
It is the most exciting ride in this or any other park, and being able to enjoy it again was the icing on the cake, the final proof that I finally was over the illness that almost meant I never would come here again.
When it’s time to get back on the horse, the Hulk really is the horse to get back on. A few little tears of happiness, relief and gratitude didn’t embarrass me at all.