Mom takes sons on first roller coaster, camera captures carnage

A mom has shared pictures of the moment her twin sons’ first trip on a roller coaster took an unexpected turn.

When Brittany Joy, along with her husband and kids, headed to Orlando, Florida, for a weeklong staycation to mark multiple family birthdays, there was only one thing on the minds of her two youngest sons, twins Bryson and Coleson: Jurassic World VelociCoaster. One of the many attractions at Universal Islands of Adventure, the pair had picked the ride to be their very first experience of a roller coaster.

“They were extremely excited,” Joy told Newsweek. “Talked about it for months leading up to the trip, kept talking about how they’re not scared, and nothing would be too crazy for them and that they could handle it. They were extremely confident.”

That confidence, unfortunately, would prove misplaced.

Professor Brendan Walker is an aeronautical engineer who has helped develop some of the most-famous roller coasters in the world. In an interview with BBC Science Focus, Walker explained the “psychological levers” he is trying to pull when designing rides of this kind.

“If I put you on a roller coaster and blindfolded you, your body’s levels of arousal would pretty precisely track the changes in acceleration forces felt around the ride,” Walker said.

“Roller coasters are successful because they really grab hold of that element of arousal and, because it’s so tightly interlinked with physical sensations that we get from the world, we can almost force an emotional experience by the very shape of the roller coaster.”

Bryson and Coleson certainly had an “experience” on the VelociCoaster, but it wasn’t necessarily an emotional one. In truth, the warning signs were there. “The twins have an older brother who didn’t want to ride the roller coaster,” Joy said.

The mom rode alongside one of the twins, with her husband seated alongside the other. It would prove to be a memorable ride—for the parents at least.

In a series of slides posted to TikTok under the handle @brittanyy.joyy, Joy shared a picture of the boys looking excited as they queued for the ride.

The video then cuts to the four of them mid-ride. By that point, both twins had passed out, though Joy is oblivious to any issue at this stage. “My husband said the twin who was with him passed out before the ride even started. That’s why he was fully turned to look at him,” Joy said. “Then the twin who was with me passed out after it started, and that’s why I didn’t realize yet.”

Joy soon cottoned on that there was an issue, though, with both parents springing into action. “Shortly after that picture was taken, we spent the duration of the ride trying to hold their heads back the best we could so we barely got to enjoy the ride,” Joy said.

She added that, once the ride was over, the boys woke up with “zero memory” of what had happened. Some might have been disappointed to have missed out after hyping up the experience for so long. The boys had a different take. “We told them they passed out, and they instantly started laughing about it, talked about it for days, telling everyone the story,” Joy said.

The fainting incident proved to be the making of them on the trip, too. “It worked out in our favor because the rest of the trip they continued to go on every single ride with no fear and no more fainting,” Joy said.

The mom’s video, meanwhile, went viral, with several viewers flocking to reveal similar experiences. “I honestly never expected it to go viral the way it did, so I’m still shocked by that,” Joy said. “It seems as if a lot of people have fallen victim to the same roller coaster.”