A plunge into the dark side
What's so scary about Splish Splash's Tunnel of Terror?
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"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" a sinister-sounding voice had asked me over the phone nearly an hour ago.
At the time, I didn't think I was.
Now, in a pitch-black tunnel with hundreds of gallons of water shooting me down a 40-foot drop that swirled and spun in every direction, I wasn't so sure.
The darkness suddenly lifted to reveal the ravaging teeth of a massive white shark. Enclosed in the tunnel, there was no way to escape. In less than a second, I would be clenched between its hungry jaws.
And then it was over. I passed through a wall of mist, onto which the shark had been projected, and plummeted into a 3 1/2-foot-deep pool. James Wakefield, my riding partner and Splish Splash lifeguard, casually slid off the tube.
"It's over?" I thought, blinking in surprise. "Wow."
Advertised as the "definitive answer to the ultimate question of courage," it threatened to scare the tears out of me. Any curious patron who calls Splish Splash looking for information on the ride is redirected to an eerie voice, laughing maniacally while he asks whether the caller is "afraid of the dark."
To my surprise, however, half the thrill was actually the product of my own imagination, the hype surrounding the ride before I even sat in the tube.
"It's not high thrill," said Michael Bengston, the park's general manager. "But it's cool, it's innovative, it's new."
People expect it to be absolutely terrifying, he said. But it's really not. Instead, it's just a lot of fun for any age.
But perhaps that's actually part of the ride's excitement -- the thrill of expectation and the tricks your mind plays during those five seconds of total darkness.
Before beginning the four-story climb to the top of the tunnel, each rider is brought through the laboratory of evil genius Dr. Von Dark. On either side, riders can peek into the dark interior of his lair, and on a screen overhead, the scientist warns riders of the tunnel's dangers in a sharp Russian accent.
To the untrained eye, Dr. Von Dark's laboratory looks just like any other staged, pre-ride setup. The keen observer, however, might realize that those "Danger: High Voltage" signs aren't just for show.
The complicated arrangement of wires and tubes on the left is actually the ride's filtration system, and on the right is the main generator, powering not only the Tunnel of Terror but also any future ride the park develops.
"We control the ride from here," said Mr. Bengston, motioning toward a shelf of computers blending into the dark left corner of the lab. Every image projected onto the ride's wall of mist has its origins here, he said.
So my toothy shark was just a trick of computer-generated light.
Back on the side of the pool, I wiped the excess water from my face and asked James if he wanted to go a second time.
He nodded, and the two of us ran back up toward the mouth of the tunnel.
This time, I was ready for it.
bdegnan@timesreview.com
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