The Debut of Mrs. XscreamThrills | Roller Coaster YouTube Channel

WELL friends – I’m now famous! See ya later wedding world – I’m moving on over to the roller coaster arena!

Okay, I’m kidding about leaving the wedding world (what would I do without my amazing brides & grooms?) but I have to admit, making a video with Derrick about roller coasters was a ton of fun.

A few weeks ago, Derrick asked if I would be interested in making a video for his YouTube channel – just to spice things up & do something different – and I said, “Sure!” It took me a few days (and then a few more days) to come up with a topic that I thought would be interesting & then to write the script. It truly was so much fun to think back over my own experiences with roller coasters & find a story that I wanted to share.

And – my video went live yesterday!

I have to admit: I was quite terrified for my video to go live. Derrick has been building his roller coaster YouTube channel for several years now & has built up quite a large following (he’s even been recognized multiple times in different theme parks that we’ve been in! how crazy is that?!) It’s one thing to write out a story (you all know I love writing) – it was another thing to sit down & actually press the record-button while reading that story (newsflash: it was actually a ton of fun). But watching my video – my voice, my story – go live & having other people watch it was terrifying. I was so scared!! What if the video doesn’t do well? What if Derrick’s followers find me annoying? What if they hate it & leave me nasty comments?

Thankfully, all of my fears were completely unjustified. Derrick’s “tribe” of roller coaster enthusiasts are super kind & they left me some of the sweetest comments out there. I have literally been on a “YouTube high” ever since I was brave enough to look thru the comments last night.

Needless to say, Derrick has now “signed me up” for a few more videos in the near future (plus, we have a few ideas to make some videos together!) And, I’ll be honest: I feel like I’ve caught the “video-bug”! Along with Derrick’s YouTube channel, I’ve been working on a few videos for myself – some video for my website, blog content via video – it’s all super exciting & I can’t wait to show you all what I’ve been working on!! Stay tuned!

(If you’d rather read my script for this video over watching it – I posted that below!)

Derrick asked me if I was interested in putting together a roller coaster review for his channel & I said, “Absolutely!” It’s about time he loosened up, moved over, and let his wife do a little talking!

Let me introduce myself: my name is Kara & I am Mrs. XscreamThrills. Derrick & I have been married for 10 years & one of the very first questions he asked me on the day we met was: “Do you like roller coasters?” Thankfully, I said that I did & well, the rest is history.

I split my time between being a wedding & engagement photographer and being a stay-at-home Mom to our 2 kids. That’s right: I’m a professional photographer! I shot my first solo-wedding over 10 years ago & took my business full-time in 2015. If you’ve ever wondered where Derrick gets all of his pretty Instagram photos from? More than likely, they were taken by me. As much as I love photographing weddings, I also love photographing roller coasters! I have been taking photos of roller coasters specifically for Derrick since 2009.

But, let’s get into some good stuff.

I figured: why not review a roller coaster that I have ridden, but that Derrick has never ridden. It’s a strange but fun thing to say: but I have actually ridden several roller coasters that Derrick has never ridden – several of which are now defunct & so he will never be able to add them to his credit list. Ding ding ding – points for me!

Of the several coasters I’ve ridden but Derrick has not – one of the most memorable was my first ride on a roller coaster that went upside down – and that was on Steel Phantom at Kennywood Park.

As many of you probably know, Kennywood is currently Derrick & I’s home park. In fact, Kennywood has pretty much always been my home park (except for the 8 months that I interned at Walt Disney World – at which point I proudly claimed the Magic Kingdom as my home). I have almost always lived about 30 minutes away from West Mifflin, so I grew up going to Kennywood at least once a summer with my family. It was our tradition to pack a picnic lunch, grab a family photo with Cowboy Joe, and eat as many Potato Patch cheesy french fries as we possibly could.

I remember riding the progression of coasters at Kennywood: being tall enough to ride Jack Rabbit one summer (to my Mother’s terror – that was back when the height restriction was just 36”), then I was able to Racer the next. The following year, I just barely missed the mark to ride Thunderbolt, but at the same time, I just squeaked by as tall enough to ride Steel Phantom during the last summer it was in operation.

I was elated. We had all heard the news that Steel Phantom was going to get transformed over the off-season & I was thrilled that I was finally tall enough to ride the black & silver beast that towered over everything in the park.

Both of my parents love riding roller coasters, but my Mom always complained that Steel Phantom was too rough on her neck & back. That simply meant that I would be riding with my Dad. And being as I was a little nervous (remember: I had never been on a coaster that went upside down before) – this was exactly the person I wanted to be riding beside me.

As we stood in line, I was a jumble of nervous, but excited, energy. We watched the trains be pulled up the lift hill, felt the wind from the train as it raced down that first drop, and finally toward the end of its course, it would spiral thru 4 loops.

As we got closer to the station, we could hear an announcement being played over the speaker system. It was warning everyone that this coaster could get a bit rough and everyone needed to remove any ear piercings they had. I was 10 years old the summer of 2000, and I had gotten my ears pierced the year prior when I was 9. Almost in the station now, I could see the ride attendants not only checking restraints, but also checking people’s ears for earrings. For the most part, everyone seemed to be following the instructions coming over the speaker system – except for one lady, sitting in the second car, who had multiple piercings all up & down her ears. The ride attendants stopped everything & would not let the train be dispatched until she had removed all of her earrings.

Not wanting to be the cause of a hold-up, I pulled the tiny 14-karat gold studs out of my ears. I pulled the left one out, tucked it into the pocket of my shorts, and as I was pulling my right earring out, it slipped through my fingers, hit the concrete que we were standing on, and bounced off, to fall about 20 feet, into the weeds below.

I just stood there in shock. I didn’t know what to say – but I quickly realized, there was nothing to say – my earring was gone & there was absolutely no way I was getting it back.

My Mom is going to kill me, I thought.

But there was nothing I could do about it. The line was moving forward again & my Dad & I found ourselves in the station. We picked the shortest line for a row in the middle of the train, and a few minutes later, we were boarding.

Steel Phantom had these hard, over-the-shoulder restraints. On an adult, like my Dad, they touched his shoulders when they came down, but on a kid, like me, I felt like they swallowed me whole. I could barely see around them. And once they were locked into place, I couldn’t move my arms or legs – I was pinned down.

My Dad suggested I try to keep my head as upright & locked in place as possible. And I soon learned why. Steel Phantom was rough. My little head banged around inside the restraints like a pin-ball. I realized that if I had kept my earrings in, they likely would have pierced my neck from my ears being pushed so quickly & ruthlessly into my neck.

Thankfully, I was a 10-year-old kid, and even though the ride was rough – it didn’t bother me one bit. I loved riding up the lift hill – the tallest I’d ever been on. The view out across the park was simply breathtaking (from what I could see around my restraints of course). As we crested that first drop, I squeezed my eyes closed, but then quickly opened them back up to take in the exhilarating speed at which the train raced toward the ground.

Once the train went up the second hill & dropped down into the Thunderbolt structure, I lost all sense of where I was. The back portion of the ride felt like a giant spaghetti bowl of ups and downs, overs and unders.

Before I knew it, we were rolling back into the station. What an incredible ride.

I was ready to do it again, but the line had gotten even longer & my Dad said we needed to find my Mom & siblings (it was almost time to get Potato Patch fries for dinner after all).

As a 10-year old – I would have rated Steel Phantom as a solid 9 out of 10 (that one point being deducted due to them forcing me to take out my earrings & me thus losing one). I remember not really registering how rough the ride truly was. Sure, my head got ping-ponged around in a few spots, but as a kid – I truly didn’t care how rough the ride was. It was tall & fast & went upside down – what more could you ask for?

As an adult however, I’m pretty thankful that Morgan came in & updated the coaster when they did. As a 30-year old (I guess that means I’m officially not a kid anymore), I have ridden several old Arrow coasters that probably provide a similar experience to what Steel Phantom delivered: namely the late Vortex at Kings Island, Anaconda at Kings Dominion, and Corkscrew at Cedar Point. I feel like I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that my Mom clearly made the right choice in bowing out & letting my Dad ride Steel Phantom with me. As pretty as these custom looping coasters are to watch & photograph – they are definitely not what I would consider “re-ridable”. They’re rough & even painful at certain points. So, as an adult, I would probably rate Steel Phantom as a solid 4 out of 10 (and that generous 4 would mostly be due to the nostalgia factor).

The very next time we visited Kennywood Park as a family – in the summer of 2001 – Steel Phantom was no more. It had received a fancy new green paint job, the over-the-shoulder restraints had been removed (along with the warnings to remove your earrings), and the 4 loops were also gone. Phantom’s Revenge had arrived & even though I secretly wished they had left the loops in, it quickly became one of my very favorite coasters. In fact, it’s still one of my favorite coasters to this day.

Riding Steel Phantom just weeks before it was closed forever was an experience I will never forget. And one I will never fail to rub in Derrick’s face as a coaster that I have ridden that he never will.

Well, what do you guys think? Should I stick around? Would you like to hear some of my other stories about riding coasters that Derrick has never ridden? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

As always: don’t forget to hit that subscribe button for more great content coming your way by (Mrs.) XscreamThrills.