Throwback Thursday: amusement parks? #TBT

[#1]

It's Thursday!

Here are some pictures from 1978 of my parents and my sister standing outside of Sea World in San Diego. Check out the matching jackets we had! :) Oh and check out the entrance gate! Not quite the same today...

It was an amazing experience for me! I was only 8 years old and never seen anything like this. So cool to see how much these animals could be trained.

Sooooo, what memories do you have from theme parks or amusement parks?
Let’s make it a great Thursday! KGM

[Stephen_Lugton]

There was a British children's TV programme, called Grange Hill, about a typical school in the UK, it lasted 31 seasons so it had a good turnover of cast as each year the oldest children left and a new class started.

Near where I grew up, there's an amusement park, Chessington World of Adventures, which has it's own zoo (In fact it started as just a zoo but grew to include the amusement park).

One year my mum took my friends and I there, and while we were there we went to the zoo and found that an episode of Grange Hill was being filmed, and because of the way the enclosures were set up you could see through the cages and see the actors being filmed.

Some time later that episode was on TV, and my friends and I appeared as 'extras' walking along right at the back of the scene.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Wow, @Kristján Geir Mathiesen, I didn't realize how many times I've been to amusement parks until I started thinking about what memory to share. 

Since you mentioned Sea World in San Diego, my first trip was when my stepson was 3 years old (1990), and he was excited to see Shamu and "Baby Shampoo." 

When I was small, we had a park in Lake George, NY. It was call Storytown then but is now a Six Flags park. I remember going on the tea cup ride with my mom and siblings—basically the cup went in circles while the whole ride circled around. We were all of a height where we kept smacking our heads on the tea cup as it spun, and we made a unanimous decision never to go on such a ride again.

[Benjamin]

Disneyland was my favorite. As I got older, I was more into rollercoasters and would prefer to go to six flags. I'm glad to have experience theme parks when I was a kid. Now, it brings back so much memories and nostalgia. Especially, when I went there while I was attending Team 25 during the same week. 

[Krista Williamson]

 I grew up in Virginia and I remember riding an old wooden roller coaster named the Rebel Yell at the Kings Dominion amusement park in the late 1970s. It was a rickety old coaster with a series of drops and turns that seemed crazy at the time. Looking back and considering what coasters are like now it is pretty tame in comparison. 🎢

[Vronik]

Hi

I have the best memories in the world. Even now that I'm older, I still go and ride every ride I can. They're simply wonderful.

Thank you for this wonderful memory.

Regards

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Croatia is so far behind that we only have those mobile carnivals/amusement parks which are relatively small.

I believe the first 'standard' amusement park I've visited was Gardaland in Italy (back in the late 2000s), which is still an 8+ hour drive from my hometown.

Since then, I've visited a lot of parks, mainly in Europe + a couple in LA in April this year. I'll just say I don't know what the fuss is about Disneyland 😅 I mean, it's a nice park, but I believe there are many cooler places 👀 

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

I've done a lot of amusement parks, Disney, and Universal have been my primary go-tos.  Been going to DisneyWorld and Bush Gardens (Tampa) since the early 70s. I will probably do a big Orlando trip in next year or two to both DisneyWorld and the new Epic Universe at Universal Studios.

I got the annual pass to Knotts Berry Farm, mainly because it came with 40 other park passes (all Cedar Park and Six Flags locations). I am still working out the logistics on how I can pair each park visit with an ACE event, trying to hit each one in the next 12 months.

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Takk for sharing your memories!

[Gor Greyan]

They remind me of my childhood trips to Yerevan’s Victory Park. We’d ride the big Ferris wheel that overlooks the city and grab popcorn near the Mother Armenia statue. The view of Mount Ararat from the top was unforgettable! :)

[Tinker Fadoua]

We had one amusement park in Casablanca called Sindbad. Not that many in Morocco.