The balboa park carousel is not a true carousel it is a true merry go round. A true carousel has horses only and goes clockwise. but it is a true merry go round goes counter clockwise
King arthurs carousel in Disneyland, anheim california is a true carousel, it had one point 72 horses, but to make ada complient they removed 4 hourses and added a ramp here is wiki article about the carousel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur_Carrousel and here is a video clip of the carousel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exk2AxRUK2Y&feature=related
back in my college days i used to work at disneyland as a rides manager, fantasyland was my area, i spent many happy hours on that carousel. I remember when i was training the 3 new hires early one morning on circle rides, i turned on the carousel and had smoke comming out from the bottom. i remember having to call the fire dept. but anyway a piece of wood was sticking out from the bottom of the ride hitting the ground as the ride does it cycle, causing the piece of wood to smoke and causing me to think the carousel was on fire. but i will never forget that memory on the king arthurs carousel, i have another story where i had a kid get his head stuck in the q line fence, i will tell that one story some other time
but anyway back to balboa parks merry go round, a true merry go round goes counter clockwise, it has animales that you would find in your local barnyard and at the san diego zoo, i know it has a lion, a giraffe and a horse, i forgot what other animals is on the thing
but i like to ride the merry go round to play the brass ring game, it 1 out of 18 carousels in the united states that still offers the brass ring game, if you get the brass/gold ring you get a free ride. it here is a wiki article one the brass ring game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_ring
http://www.balboapark.org/in-the-park/details/63
in all my years of playing the game i have never gotten the gold ring, boo who and lol. be carefull while playing this game and hold on to the horse while reaching out for the ring. because you might fall out of the running merry go round.
here is some video i shot while riding the merry go round a few years back
http://www.balboapark.org/in-the-park/details/63
and now onto the pictures
The balboa park merry go round
The brass ring game sign
The brass ring arm where you try to grab the brass ring
5 rings later and still no brass ring what i loser i am.
when you are done playing the game, you get to throw the rings at the evil scary clown . if you hate clowns please visit this website then. this is my favorite part of the ride
http://www.ihateclowns.com/ and watch this funny video if of a women terrofied of clowns, i think this video is funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2nK_qmvJ7A
holding the loser brass ring, i am so sad.
after i had finished my ride on the merry go round i took this last shot of the ride in action
well thanks for reading more to come.
