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Underneath a swinging ship carnival ride.
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Previously:
Carnival crane game with kid as the claw - GIF
I love to watch the machinery of the rides I'm on as much as experience the ride itself. Anyone who knows me well enough to go to a theme park with me knows that this is a thing I will do, and they let me geek out to my heart's content.
For the "Viking" boat rides my favorite spots are the outer seats at the ends. You can see the whole mechanism for a long time without leaning too far over the side.
I don't remember at which park it was (I think Cedar Point) but on one of the large ones the drive wheel stopped and reversed rotation as soon as the boat passed it, rather than keep rolling and just dip out of the way. It got the thing zooming to top speed quickly. When it came time to slow down it rotated against the travel of the boat, and every time it kinda sounded like an airplane nose wheel touching down, which I also thought was also cool.
Of course I wanted to see the works, but theme parks are kinda iffy on letting guests roam the backstage, so I had to content myself with watching it through the fence.
Neil