PURPLE PEOPLE BRIDGE CL!MB — June 25, 2006
Today, a group of us (Ted, Tracy, Julie, Mark, Robin, Dave, Ron, (Jay), Wendy, and Drew) participated in the PURPLE PEOPLE BRIDGE CL!MB, a new attraction in the Cincinnati Ohio/Newport Kentucky area. This is the first bridge walk in the Northern Hemisphere (there are others in Australia and New Zealand).
Despite a slow start (we actually started the climb an extremely frustrating 75 minutes past our reservation time — we had to be flexible because they’ve only been open one week, though Jay had to bail out because he flat ran out of time), it was a fun tour. I trust that the issues that delayed our start time will be addressed and fixed. Our tour guide, Todd, did a very nice job with our rowdy group.
From the uber-cheesy introductory video they make you watch to the incredibly bright purple-and-yellow jumpsuits you have to wear, the entire experience is entertaining on many levels, some of which I am sure are not intentional. The view from the top of the bridge is a spectacular, but you’re not allowed to take your camera (though your tour guide i$ willing to take a$ many picture$ a$ you want, and they’re $o happy to $ell them to you once you make it back to ba$e camp).
I don’t think the attraction is worth $60 (a sunrise climb, sunset climb, or a ‘specialty’ climb costs even more) especially considered against the cost of other entertainment options in the area (King’s Island comes to mind, where an adult gets a full day of entertainment for under $50). I anticipate a lot of coupons, promotions, and discounts for this attraction in the future, so it might be worth holding out for those incentives. I’m glad we did the climb, though I am not sure it’s something we’d do again unless we had out-of-town guests who were dying to do it and coupons.
It’s us on top of the bridge!
The gallery of shots is here.
I heard one of the developers of the bridge climb on the radio, and he mentioned something about surprise sound effects when you get to the top, also he mentioned another surprise at the glass see-through section of the trip. I won’t ever get to climb the bridge, but was wondering what the surprises might be and was hoping you would be able to tell me.
Thanks
Hi Rob. Thanks for your comment. There were some sound effects (like the Bengal football team’s fight song) that were played by the guide, but they were so difficult to hear that they were essentially nonexistent. In my opinion, if the designers wanted us to hear something, they should have pumped the sounds through the headsets we were all already wearing.
The only thing I can think that was a ‘surprise’ at the glass see-through section was that one of the three panes of glass was cracked. I’m not sure if that was by design or not, but it wasn’t surprising to me. Our tour guide was standing on it when I noticed that it was cracked, so I wasn’t worried at all.
Thanks for the info! Keep up the good work on your site.