Tldr: I'm now officially old and apparently get vertigo from the hardcore teacups.

Turned 24 earlier this month.

Decided to go to a Christmas lights switch on with my friend, and there was a few rides there, one of which being the waltzers.

I love the waltzers! There was a permanent fairground on the pier of the town that I grew up in, and I remember them being one of my favourite rides as a child.

Fast forward to now. I haven't been on the waltzers since I was around 12.

Friend and I get on the ride, and go up to the "SCREAM IF YOU WANNA GO FASTAH!" guy in the centre to pay. We both pay. He then STARTS THE RIDE while we're still in the process of walking to our waltzer… Cab? Vehicle? Person holder? Cup? Thing. The thing you sit in.

So the ride is now moving. We both have to make a dive for the nearest waltzer… Person holder… Thing. Lap bar goes down over our laps, fine, good. We're secure, we're locked in.

And then we spin. As one does on the waltzers. I can't even remember what was playing because it was so loud. The spinning was good. Thankfully, because my friend and I weren't two blonde teenage girls, the waltzer spinner guy who spins your waltzer capsule took mercy on us, and didn't spin us too hard.

I don't know how long that ride lasted, but I had GREAT fun! My friend found it hilarious at how much I was screaming. He laughed at me the whole time. I promise you, I was having fun, my body was just yelling without my permission.

And then we get off the ride. I stumble to the side. I then have to walk down the stairs, and my friend at this point realises I'm so unbalanced that he needs to hold my arm and guide me down like I'm an old lady.

We walk away from the ride and I can feel my dizziness getting progressively worse, despite the fact that I am no longer spinning. It gets so bad that I find the nearest wall and squat down against it. Every time I lift my head, I feel like I'm going to faint.

Friend drags me round the corner to a nearby event ambulance, who were very kind and let me lie down with my legs being held in the air. While lying there, my blood pressure kept going up and down, much like the hills and valleys of the waltzers.

After half an hour of that, I get up. And then immediately sit down again. Yeah, no. That didn't feel good. But it's okay. Friend's house is right around the corner. I tell them I'll be okay, I just have to take it slow.

I am then wrangled into a wheelchair by two paramedics and my friend, and I have to do the walk (wheel?) of shame, parting the red sea of Christmas light people, until I could get back to my friend's house, where I laid face down on his bed for an hour until everything stopped spinning quite so badly.

For the next week, I couldn't lift my head in quickly, else I'd be transported back to the waltzers.

So, if anyone's wondering, the upper age limit for the waltzers is apparently 24 years and two weeks.

Photos of my downfall attached.

by Cumulus-Crafts

28 comments

  1. Younger me would have laughed at this but 29 year old me nearly broke a rib from holding in a sneeze in a waiting room today so yeah… I get it.

    Speedy recovery and all that

  3. Last time I attempted the Waltzers, it shook me up so much I was violently ill for the next three days 😭

  4. I’m 45 and avoid funfairs entirely. That is a young person’s game.

  5. I’m sorry this happened to you. 24 does sound young to enter your waltzers endgame. My grandad didn’t give up on them until he nearly lost his dentures on seafront waltzers in his late sixties.

    I’m in my 40s and still run onto fairground and theme park rides like an excited child.

  6. I got my first grey hair at 25, I figured that’s when my youth ended

    I never figured the Waltzers would be a
    round the same age

  7. I love the waltzers, joint favourite with the twister (four cars to an arm, spins on the axis while also going round very fast on the central pole).

    I can no longer go on the waltzers because the ‘seats’ are so low I can’t get back up.

    55.

  8. I’d have puked over absolutely everyone and everything 30 seconds in, no thank you

  9. I saw a woman get off the waltzers before I got on almost being sick and I was like PAH SILLY WOMAN SHE IS

    then on I went and honest to god I thought it was the end. Death had come upon me and was spinning me into the grave

    It’s my daughters favourite ride but unfortunately until she’s old enough to go on with friends she is not braving that again with me!

  10. Took my daughter on them on her first trip to a theme park

    I severely underestimated them and my age

  11. Friend made me go in a waltzer a few years ago, about 27 at the time and I was still ‘spinning’ for at least an hour after and could not eat or drink a single thing that whole hour either. Friend who made me go on (also 3 years younger) took the piss for the next few hours as I reacclimated to the normal spin of the planet

  12. Went on the teacups with my ex at thorpe park a couple of years ago and had a spectacularly bad time. Rollercoasters were fine, by contrast. No spinnies for me

  13. I threw up on the Waltzer many years ago. It was humiliating. But it taught me that I detest being spun around . A valuable life lesson.
    But you made me smile OP with your well written escapade.

  14. That sounds like a “see a doctor” thing, not an age thing. Hope you’re feeling better.

  16. I worked on a much smaller version where the forces weren’t as strong yet someone was sick in one of them. By the time the ride emptied and I’d found stuff to clear it up with, someone had just sat down in it without noticing as the ride filled up. 🤢

  17. The last time I rode the waltzers, I ended up feeling sick and had to go home right afterwards, but only made it to the train station nearby before puking and passing out. I think people thought I was horrendously drunk.

    I was about 26 then.

    So I think there’s something to this waltzers are for the young business.

  18. I feel your pain, I can’t cope with anything spinny. I went on that one at Alton Towers that spins really fast and then goes sideways (Enterprise maybe?) and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so ill.

  19. I got really bad motion sickness from the walzers a couple of years ago. I was 34. I was gutted, I love them.

  20. A similar thing happened to me but it wasn’t the waltzers. I tried to unblock/pop my ears by pinching my nostrils, closing my mouth and exhaling air.

    I went dizzy as fu*k and every time I tried opening my eyes, they would just roll around. It was an awful experience. And it was just before I was about to set off for work, so that made me panic even more.

    Don’t think my ears cleared either.

  21. Oh god I genuinely hate these things.

    Went to a dodgy funfair 2 years ago and my mate, who loves rides, begs me to go on the waltzers. So I agree.

    Me, the friend, her Mum and her dad get up there and they direct us to one chair thing. Now, im not small – neither are the others. We all squeeze in, and they go to put the bar down and it didn’t click?? I panicked and went to say something and the little fucker just smirked.

    They start the ride and im clinging on to this bar for grim death whilst also holding it down. The others, absolute nutters, seem to think it’s the best thing they’ve ever done.

    Now that same fucker is running around spinning the things so much I swear I felt my brain hit the wall of my skull. I’ll never forget that ride, I felt ill the whole evening.

    Never again!

  23. 24 feels quite young are you sure there are no undiagnosed medical issues???

  24. I’m 41, used to love a waltzer so was excited to take my 8 year old on one at a recent fair.

    Now I don’t know if it’s my age or what, but HOLY SHIT that thing span so fast and so intensely I thought I was going to pass out.

  25. I’m nearly 50, just got back from A&E with a pack of cocodamol after breaking a rib Karting with work. The general consensus from the awesome NHS staff is I’m too old for that shite

  26. I have it on good authority that this is how Leonardo DiCaprio chooses his next girlfriend.

    Anyone who can’t handle the waltzers, too old.

  27. A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of being picked up by an ambulance and spending the evening in hospital because I flat out collapsed. What caused this episode? A day of gardening followed by a well earned fag break. I’m currently 28 and haven’t smoked since. Don’t worry, we’re all getting a bit delicate in our old age. 

  28. Ah I dragged my dad on some of those as a kid. It dislodged some crystal in his ear, and he passed out on the tube the next morning.

    … I’m going to buy him a waltzer themed Christmas card

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