Humor

Humiliating Motion Sickness Drama at Amusement Park

I should have known better than to go on that ride

Losing my cookies at an amusement park was not my idea of a fun day, nor was anyone else’s. Yet it happened because I forgot something — I can’t go on circular spinning rides!

When my son was younger, we would plan a yearly camping trip to Toms River because it was close to Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, which was one of our favorite amusement parks.

Since I tended to become motion sick on circular spinning rides, I made it a point to ride the first one located near the park entrance, causing my stomach to do its usual flip-flops, then afterward settling it down with crackers or pretzels.

Free tickets to our favorite park

By some stroke of luck, the company I worked for offered us and our other divisions the chance to spend a special day at Great Adventure free of charge with food vouchers and a few other amenities.

Being that they also transported us by bus, our only travel was from our house to the building I worked at, then back later in the day.

The best part for us was the unlimited access to rides with fairly short lines, and since our company was located closest to the park, we arrived on the first bus, which allowed us the opportunity to ride the most thrilling attractions multiple times without ever leaving our seats.

Of course, I’d still ride the circular one by the entrance first to settle my stomach. I had to, or my day would be ruined.

As part of the company’s perks, they offered us discount passes for up to six guests. One year, I passed them on to my sister and her kids, as they lived only 20 minutes away from the park. They were thrilled to have the opportunity and planned to meet our bus in the parking lot, as I had all the guest tickets with me.

Wrong shoes for walking

The morning of the trip, we were running late, and as I did not want to miss the bus, I accidentally ran out of the house, forgetting to change from my sandals into sneakers. I knew this would cause at the very least discomfort, but I had no idea how hard it would be to walk around for hours with just sandals.

I didn’t want to slow anyone down and did my best to keep moving, taking breaks here and there as my feet were burning and throbbing from the hot, hard ground.

Additionally, because I had been waiting to meet my sister and her kids in the morning, I never made it to my usual round spinning ride with a pretzel chaser, meaning for the rest of the day I’d have to skip any of the rides, which normally gave me nausea.

Sometime later in the day, maybe because my feet hurt so badly and I needed to sit again, I allowed my niece and nephew to convince me to try what looked like a mild spinning ride, similar to the one where the floor drops out, but this one had seats.

I placed my hat under my leg and braced myself while the ride began.

The moment it started spinning, my stomach began to churn. The faster the ride spun, the more I knew I was in trouble.

The force of the ride plastered our heads to the metal mesh behind us, and I was facing my niece, who was on my right side. Fearing she would be the target should I lose my lunch, I tried to turn my head forward, but the ride was in full motion, making it hard to move.

It was inevitable — I felt like everything I had eaten all day was about to make an unwelcome reappearance. As hard as I tried to keep it down, I knew it was a battle I was about to lose.

No escape for her

My niece, who was looking right at me, asked if I was alright, but she knew when she saw my face what was about to happen and tried to turn her head the other way.

It was too late. My mouth opened wide, and there was no stopping the projectile vomit aimed right at her with no escape. It hit her in the face, hair, her clothes, and also on me and the kid on the other side of her. I was mortified.

As we disembarked from the ride with all eyes on us, we tried to hide the horrible mess we were involuntarily wearing.

I was so dizzy that my son, who was howling with laughter by this time, took my arm and helped me to the exit.

It was a walk of shame as we searched for the ladies’ room, where we splashed soap and water on ourselves, washed out her hair in the sink, then stood under the blower to dry as much of ourselves as we could.

My niece took it like a champ, even laughed while we were drying ourselves off, and told me how funny my face looked when my cheeks were billowing.

There were no more rides or meals for me the rest of that day. The family continued with their fun day, enjoying the attractions and eating hamburgers and fries, while my stomach remained on full alert.

After that incident, I promised myself I would avoid all spinning rides forever, as the mere thought of them now makes me feel queasy.

Her favorite story to tell

At every family gathering, my niece brings up or someone asks her to tell the story about our day at Great Adventure.

She enjoys telling it in vivid detail, with gagging motions, eyes rolling to the back of her head, realistic facial expressions, and a full description of my bloated, green frog-like appearance right before I lost control and spewed my guts out.

It still never fails to elicit rolling laughter from her audience.

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