OPINION: Is FunSpot a “fun spot”?

Members of the McIntosh Trail were invited to accompany the MHS STEM program to cover the unveiling of the park and ArieForce One. In an interview, Editor-in-Chief Rebekah Bushmire and Staff Writer Ava Flores give their reviews of the park. 

PARK OVERVIEW

AVA: “Going into our trip, I had very low expectations, but I ended up very pleasantly surprised. I hadn’t been to Fun Spot before, and all the people I asked about it said that it was not very nice. The park was clean and the ride, Aerie Force One, was awesome. The staff seemed well organized and everyone knew what they were doing.

REBEKAH: “Before the field trip, I had never been to Funspot. I didn’t know much about it at all, I had heard things about it but never read into it that much. So I was pretty neutral opinion-wise. Once we got there, I was pleasantly surprised.”

AVA: “Due to the information I heard before I went to a Fun Spot, I am wondering if they cleaned the park more than usual knowing that they had reporters coming. Pictures of the park that we saw on the website did not look as clean as the park did in person.”

REBEKAH: “Entry was very smooth. They have a small metal detector you walk through and you hand off bags to be checked. I do really like the precaution and safety aspect that it gives us. The MHS STEM kids attending were given ‘Guest’ passes, I believe, but those of who were attending as representatives of McIntosh Student Media, we received “Media” passes. They had our names and publication names on them. After that, we were taken to a room where they had pastries for us. We stayed in the room for maybe ten minutes and then we went to where the opening ceremony was being held. Once we got to the opening ceremony, we watched the introductions and the information said to us and then they set off fireworks. One of the coordinators actually came and talked with me because he had heard we were from a high school media team.”

ARIEFORCE ONE REVIEW

AVA: “On the ride there is a seatbelt that you connect and then you put a harness over it. The harness locks right before the ride takes off. This feature freaked many participants out.”

REBEKAH: “Once you sit in the seat, there is a sort of seatbelt type of buckle that you clip over your lap. Then, you pull the big harness thing over your lap and that will lock to keep you in place. It took a while for it to actually lock in place and it made me freak out a little because I thought it was broken.

AVA: “The first few seconds of the ride, you go down a hill and then on a bunch of little hills quickly. This followed by going up a large hill that leads to a big drop. After the large drop, the ride doesn’t lose speed until the end. You go upside down, sideways, and over many small hills. The ride is a zero-g roller coaster. This means that the roller coaster goes 360 degrees throughout the ride.”

REBEKAH: “The ride was so unimaginable. The speed and turns and everything were crazy. It was, I think, the best roller coaster ride I have ever been on. It was like one thing after another and the first big drop was insane. We got to the top and I genuinely thought I was about to pass out. I am definitely a screamer on a roller coaster because I didn’t stop screaming the entire ride. Everyone ended up laughing at me when it stopped because I screamed so much. When we got back into the little docking station and unloaded off the ride, my legs were all jelly and numb. I went to talk and my voice was hoarse and all broken like I had been to a concert and lost my voice. That was a big cause of laughter among the McIntosh kids.”

CONCLUSIONS

AVA: “I definitely recommend the AireForce One to anyone who enjoys roller coasters and definitely go check out Funspot.”

REBEKAH: “We ended up riding a few more times before leaving and it was so much fun, Savannah Hayes and I actually went back after we returned from the field trip when the park actually opened to the public.”

FunSpot is open to the public Fri. from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., and on Sat-Sun. 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Their calendar is here.