- Spencer and Mackenzie Parkhouse were stuck on a theme park ride at Wonderland in Ontario, Canada.
- The siblings said the nearly half-hour wait was scary, but they comforted each other and other riders.
Patrons of Wonderland, an amusement park in Ontario, Canada, were left hanging upside down for nearly 30 minutes Saturday night after the Lumberjack ride stopped working. In a statement to Insider, a Wonderland spokesperson said the ride became inverted at 10:40 p.m. and was brought down by 11:05 p.m. According to the spokesperson, passengers were assessed by medical professionals. The ride is still closed and an investigation into why it stopped is ongoing.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Spencer and Mackenzie Parkhouse, siblings who were trapped on the ride, as well as their parents, who were present for the interview. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Mackenzie: My name is Mackenzie, and I am 15 years old. I am a competitive dancer and live in Toronto, Ontario. In my spare time, I like to golf and hang out with my friends.
Spencer: And my name is Spencer. I am an 11-year-old boy who loves to play hockey. And my favorite thing is hanging out with friends and family.
On Saturday, we went to Wonderland because some friends of ours invited us to go to Halloween Haunt.
Mackenzie: We had about eight friends with us.
Spencer: We went on all the rides, and everything was OK. And then we wanted to go to the haunted house. That line was too long, so we decided, "You know what? We'll go on the Lumberjack ride."
Mackenzie: When we got on and the ride started, it went up and then fully upside down, and then it stopped. At first, I thought it was a prank or something. I thought it was part of the ride.
Spencer: I also thought it was just stuck there for 30 seconds as a prank.
Mackenzie: We were there for about a minute. I realized that it actually stopped. All my friends and I, we looked at each other. My brother and I looked at each other. And then we said, "It's actually stuck." The people working there weren't really explaining what was happening on the speakers. They asked us once or twice "Oh, you guys OK up there?" And other people started screaming at them going "No, we're not! let us down!"
'We didn't know how long we were going to be up there'
Mackenzie: We were really dizzy. The blood was rushing to our heads. But one of the hardest things was, since we were fully upside down and the seatbelt goes over our shoulders and then touches our leg, it was pushing on our legs. We have some bruises on our legs. Our shoulders are sore from the seat belt. Our thighs are still a bit sore.
Spencer: I was in such shock that we were stuck that I didn't really realize that there was actually blood going to my head. But I could obviously see from some of the passengers riding that their heads were getting really red. I just didn't acknowledge it for myself. All I could start feeling was the pain in my legs, and my shoulders too.
My sister and I weren't directly sitting in front of each other, but we could clearly see each other and speak to each other while we were stuck and say "Oh, it's going to be OK. We're going to be fine."
One of the kids in front of me was like, "My legs can't take it. I have to do something about this. I can't take it!" He ended up taking off his shoes. He just was in a lot of pain. I was trying to comfort him, and so was Mackenzie.
Mackenzie: While we were up there, it was crazy to look around and see everyone and know that you guys are all going through the same thing. Their faces are turning red. People are crying. People are throwing up upside down. It was just a crazy experience. But it was just nice to have other people going through the same thing as you. If I was up there by myself, I don't know what I would do.
Spencer: They asked, "Is everyone OK up there?" every 10 minutes. We didn't know what was happening. We didn't know how long we were going to be up there. No one notified us. All they just said was "We're working on it."
Mackenzie: It was around 35-40 minutes before we could get down.
Spencer: When we finally got down, the ride still had to finish. My legs were just feeling relief. After we fully stopped, we were all still crying and we couldn't breathe too well because we were just in such shock! I can still remember the guy in front of me, his face crying upside down.
'We want to make sure it doesn't happen again'
Mackenzie: Once we got down, they took us out one by one because the seatbelts weren't really unlocking. One of our friends grabbed my phone for me and gave it to me before they took me down. I had so many missed calls from my parents and my sister. I finally called them back saying what happened because they thought we were missing. They had no idea what happened to us.
Our mom was crying. Everyone was just in shock. We were freaking out. My dad was on the phone with us and he had to calm us down. It was just a really scary experience.
Spencer: After we got down, all the medics who were already there for a while, treated us to some water bottles. They asked everyone "Has anybody had shortness of breath?" and then they took some of our oxygen levels and it was all fine.
I feel like what's been helping out my mental health after this is forgetting about all the things that happened that night and just being myself and being normal. Playing with my friends at recess, just not being sad about it.
Mackenzie: I did some homework when I got home from school and I just got back from dance. So it's pretty much just been my day-to-day life. It's still scaring me. When I go to sleep that's what I think about — I remember being upside down.
Mackenzie: I talked to a few of my friends at school. Their heads are still hurting. We're not scared anymore. We just know not to go back on a ride similar to that.
Spencer: They later asked for phone numbers. The day after, all they offered was a Fast Pass ticket and maybe a free meal. We didn't really accept that offer. We thought we deserved more than that after what we had to go through.
Mackenzie: We wanted something more than that — a season pass or something, or unlimited tickets for the whole year. And we want to make sure it doesn't happen again. That's terrifying.