Not much of an amusement park ride rider myself, but I have fond memories of a beautiful carousel at Great Falls of the Potomac, where we visited when I was about 6.
In 1996, when our son was 10, we took a 3 and a half week driving trip west, spending a long weekend in the LA area. Spent a magical Friday at Disneyland, riding Star Tours twice and singing at the top of our lungs from the front car of It's a Small World (Rob was so embarrassed - what are parents for?). The following Monday, we went to Universal Studios and rode the then-new Jurassic Park flume (front row again - we got drenched) and ET's bicycles. My favorite there, though, was that L-O-N-G escalator down to the movie lots - I got chills thinking about all the movie history.