Santa's Theme Park: Games and Rides in Phoenix, Arizona

Unlimited rides is one of the coolest things about Santa's Theme Park. For only the price of admission, you can ride almost any of the rides as many times as you like. Now I say almost any of them because there are a few things like the portable motion theater and rock climbing wall that charge a small fee, but all of the State Fair grade rides are free.

My personal favorite out of all the rides are the two ferris wheels in the park. The first on you pass is already a good size, but if you walk all the way to the end of Santa's Theme Park you'll reach the giant ferris wheel. The above picture was taken about halfway up the wheel and you'll get a good 7-10 spins around on a slow night. The views of the park are spectacular and on a clear night you can just about see North Scottsdale! If you're a fan of the puke-o-matic 5000 rides, Santa's has you covered for this as well. They have the Gravitron (spins you around so fast you stick to the walls) and the Zipper (this one jerks you all over the place) and a few others that I can't quite name. Lastly, there is a happy medium in the rides with moderate rides that go fast, lift you into the air a bit and allow you to at least catch a good view of the entire park. I really recommend the hang glider ride for some great views and fun, you lay on your stomach and it flies you up into the air!

As if the carnival rides aren't enough, you will also find various carnival games scattered through the midway of the park, including the screaming carnies that do their best to make you feel guilty for ignoring their cries and fake deals. I'm a huge carnival game junkie, so if you're anything like me and want to keep this trip under $50 for a couple then be sure to stay as far away from the games as possible. One of the tricks the carnies pull at the games is the one where you have to toss a ball into a bucket to win a prize like an Xbox 360, they'll toss a few balls into the bucket, you throw one in and it stays. They will let you throw 3-4 balls into the bucket, all the while leaving at least one in there, which makes the game easy. Once you throw down your cash they'll remove all of the balls from the bucket so that yours will bounce out every time. You've been warned about this one so don't fall for it! (I called the carnie on his trick and he went dead silent, it's fun, try it!). You'll find 1-2 of each of the normal carnival games scattered the rest of the way through Santa's Theme Park so if you like them bring an extra $20 to win a stuffed animal or two!

If you're a ride junkie then this is a great way to spend just a little bit of cash for hours and hours of fun! If you just love carnival games, you'd be better off waiting for the State or County Fair to come through, they'll have more booths and a better selection of prizes.

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