A.J.

Correct. It isn't displaying 100% properly but we know how it should look internally. There were several brand-new coasters, as well as a bunch that did not qualify in 2017 due to low ridership but qualified this year. Also consider that on the combined poll, the Mega Lites were one entry out of eight that were all within one percentage point of each other in terms of rider preference. The cutoff is twelve (12) riders for all coasters on the poll. Keep in mind that we had a heavier push on Theme Park Review's social media channels this year, so a lot of the votes are likely from people who don't frequent the forum.

Thanks for the support everyone! On the steel side, there is just over a one percent (ONE PERCENT!!!) difference in preference between Maverick, Soaring With Dragon, and all of the coasters in between (including Twisted Timbers). Really, it just shows that there are just too many good coasters in the world right now! Again, same thing. The difference in preference between Phoenix (#7) and Voyage (#5) on the wooden-only poll was .32% (thirty-two hundredths of one percent). I chalk up the low rankings of those "fine but boring" coasters (Anaconda, Grizzly, Orca Ride) to people that don't rank them low because they're bad, but rather because they've ranked a lot of better coasters higher. Yes, absolutely. Stay tuned.

The TPR 2018 Coaster Poll Results are in! https://coasterpoll.com/ The Theme Park Review Coaster Poll is an ongoing effort by myself (A.J.), Chase (Comeagain?) and Robb (robbalvey). We're continuing to work hard to develop THE definitive annual ranking of the world's roller coasters! The reason why this poll exists is because the Mitch Hawker poll, which was considered by many to be the quintessential roller coaster poll for nearly 20 years, had kind of fallen into a black hole leaving few polls or awards that exist that we would put real faith into the results. This year, we had an astounding 628 (six-hundred twenty-eight) people submit ballots! We would like to thank everyone who took the time to submit one - you're helping fulfill the poll's mission! The way Mitch’s poll worked is that instead of being a “popularity contest” of “he who gets the most votes wins”, it actually ranked and weighted people’s real life riding experience against each other. It took into account how many coasters you’ve ridden and how those rankings compare against others with similar experiences. It also meant that no matter if you’ve ridden 50 or 500 coasters, the results were “fair and balanced.” Last year, we did the poll as a live beta test, but this year, the results are for real! These results will form a basis for us to see how roller coasters, and peoples' opinions of them, change from year to year. Your coaster riding experience matters! If your favorite coaster didn’t rank where you hoped they would, AND you didn’t vote this year, please do so in the next poll! Our original plan for this year was to group any set of "roller coaster clones" (that's three or more installations of the same layout) into a singular result. Due to the overwhelming response, that did not happen. However! We do have the capability to do so retroactively and we will - all of the framework is there for us to do so. For now, the results will be displayed much like they were last year, with every coaster given an individual entry except for Intamin's collection of Mega Lite coasters. Because of this, the poll results were late in being made official - from now on, the poll will be conducted earlier in the calendar year. As a refresher, these are the rules: To qualify for the poll, a coaster has to be the size of a wild mouse or larger, with a select few exceptions To qualify for the poll, a coaster has to both have operated for the majority of the previous season (2018) AND be scheduled to open during the current season (2019). To receive a numbered ranking, a coaster must have been marked "ridden" and ranked by at least 12 (twelve) people; any with less than that are given a provisional ranking and not included in the "top" lists EDIT: It has come to our attention that people are unclear about discrepancies between the combined rankings and the wood / steel only rankings. The rankings are different in the wood / steel polls because the opposite type of coaster is removed from the poll entirely, and THEN the preference results are calculated, as if the opposite type of coaster never existed in the first place. This can, will, and does result in certain coasters jumping and falling significantly in the results. This is by design! Are you excited yet? Here come the results! 2018 Top 25 Overall Roller Coasters 1. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point 2. Lightning Rod - Dollywood 3. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure 4. Wildfire - Kolmården 5. Maverick - Cedar Point 6. Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City 7. Twisted Timbers - Kings Dominion 8. Medusa Steel Coaster - Six Flags Mexico 9. T Express - Everland 10. Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion 11. Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park 12. Soaring with Dragon - Hefei Wanda Theme Park 13. Fury 325 - Carowinds 14. Skyrush - Hersheypark 15. DC Rivals Hypercoaster - Warner Bros. Movie World 16. Millennium Force - Cedar Point 17. Helix - Liseberg 18. Twisted Colossus - Six Flags Magic Mountain 19. Jungle Trailblazer - Oriental Hertiage Wuhu 20. Phoenix - Knoebels Amusement Park and Resort 21. Superman the Ride - Six Flags New England 22. Taron - Phantasialand 23. Twisted Cyclone - Six Flags Over Georgia 24. Hyperion - Energylandia 25. Mega-Lite / Kawasemi / Fly Over Mediterranean / Piraten / Light Speed - Various Parks 2018 Top 25 Wooden Roller Coasters 1. Lightning Rod - Dollywood 2. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure 3. Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City 4. Wildfire - Kolmården 5. T Express - Everland 6. Voyage - Holiday World & Splashin' Safari 7. Phoenix - Knoebels Amusement Park and Resort 8. Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce 9. Jungle Trailblazer - Oriental Hertiage Wuhu 10. Balder - Liseberg 11. Coaster - Playland (at the PNE) 12. Goliath - Six Flags Great America 13. Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer Water World 14. Wooden Coaster Fireball - Happy Valley Shanghai 15. Dauling Dragon - Happy Valley Wuhan 16. Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee 17. Mystic Timbers - Kings Island 18. Wood Coaster - Knight Valley 19. Gold Striker - California's Great America 20. Troy - Toverland 21. Renegade - Valleyfair 22. Python in Bamboo Forest - Nanchang Wanda Park 23. Tremors - Silverwood 24. Shivering Timbers - Michigan's Adventure 25. Jungle Trailblazer - Fantawild Dreamland Zhengzhou 2018 Top 25 Steel Roller Coasters 1. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point 2. Maverick - Cedar Point 3. Twisted Timbers - Kings Dominion 4. Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park 5. Medusa Steel Coaster - Six Flags Mexico 6. Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion 7. Mega-Lite / Kawasemi / Fly Over Mediterranean / Piraten / Light Speed - Various Parks 8. Soaring with Dragon - Hefei Wanda Theme Park 9. DC Rivals Hypercoaster - Warner Bros. Movie World 10. Twisted Colossus - Six Flags Magic Mountain 11. Skyrush - Hersheypark 12. Fury 325 - Carowinds 13. Millennium Force - Cedar Point 14. Helix - Liseberg 15. Taron - Phantasialand 16. Twisted Cyclone - Six Flags Over Georgia 17. Superman the Ride - Six Flags New England 18. Hyperion - Energylandia 19. Storm Chaser - Kentucky Kingdom 20. RailBlazer - California's Great America 21. Goliath - Walibi Holland 22. Iron Rattler - Six Flags Fiesta Texas 23. iSpeed - Mirabilandia 24. Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster - Six Flags Fiesta Texas 25. New Texas Giant - Six Flags Over Texas 2018 10 Worst Roller Coasters Overall 10. MP-Xpress - Movie Park Germany 9. T3 - Kentucky Kingdom 8. Mind Eraser - Elitch Gardens 7. Mind Eraser - Darien Lake 6. Time Warp - Canada's Wonderland 5. Condor - Walibi Holland 4. Orca Ride - Boudewijn Seapark 3. Anaconda - Walygator Parc 2. Mind Eraser - Six Flags America 1. Volare - Wiener Prater 2018 10 Worst Wooden Roller Coasters 10. Zach's Zoomer - Michigan's Adventure 9. Wildcat - Lake Compounce 8. Little Dipper - Six Flags Great America 7. Underground - Adventureland 6. Ghoster Coaster - Canada's Wonderland 5. Coaster Express - Parque Warner Madrid 4. Predator - Darien Lake 3. Grizzly - California's Great America 2. Anaconda - Walygator Parc 1. Bandit - Movie Park Germany 2018 10 Worst Steel Roller Coasters 10. Ednör - L'Attaque - La Ronde 9. MP-Xpress - Movie Park Germany 8. T3 - Kentucky Kingdom 7. Mind Eraser - Elitch Gardens 6. Time Warp - Canada's Wonderland 5. Mind Eraser - Darien Lake 4. Condor - Walibi Holland 3. Orca Ride - Boudewijn Seapark 2. Mind Eraser - Six Flags America 1. Volare - Wiener Prater Thanks again to anyone and everyone who took the time to vote in the 2018 poll. Look out for myself and Chase to keep the thread going with fun, interesting, and random stats! As always, please comment / post if you have any questions, and we can't wait to do this again next year! View full results here: Combined Results Wood Results Steel Results What fun and interesting "top 10" lists do you want to see? Leave a post! #1 Steel Coaster and #1 Overall Coaster - Steel Vengeance #2 Steel Coaster and #5 Overall Coaster - Maverick #3 Steel Coaster and #7 Overall Coaster - Twisted Timbers #4 Steel Coaster - Expedition GeForce #5 Steel Coaster and #8 Overall Coaster - Medusa Steel Coaster #6 Steel Coaster and #10 Overall Coaster - Intimidator 305 #7 Steel Coaster - Mega Lite Coasters (Fly Over Mediterranean, Kawasemi, Light Speed, Mega-Lite, Piraten) #8 Steel Coaster - Soaring With Dragon #9 Steel Coaster - DC Rivals Hypercoaster #10 Steel Coaster - Twisted Colossus #1 Wooden Coaster and #2 Overall Coaster - Lightning Rod #2 Wooden Coaster and #3 Overall Coaster - El Toro #3 Wooden Coaster and #6 Overall Coaster - Outlaw Run #4 Wooden Coaster and #4 Overall Coaster - Wildfire #5 Wooden Coaster and #9 Overall Coaster - T Express #6 Wooden Coaster - Voyage #7 Wooden Coaster - Phoenix #8 Wooden Coaster - Boulder Dash #9 Wooden Coaster - Jungle Trailblazer (Oriental Heritage Wuhu) #10 Wooden Coaster - Balder

It should be noted that the seats don't tilt straight down like Falcon's Fury and Ikaros. At least from videos it appears to be more comparable to Six Flags Over Georgia's Acrophobia, or other Intamin stand-up floorless towers, but in a traditional seating position.

I don't think so, the old trains look pretty much exactly like what are currently running on Balder at Liseberg.

I think that they're Intamin, they look just like the ones on El Toro and T Express.

I'll be heading to Legoland next weekend! Here's mine! http://support.gktw.org/site/TR/CoastingForKids/General?px=1405148&pg=personal&fr_id=1882

Oh dear. Untamed and Goliath are what I'm most looking forward to when I go there in mid-summer, but it would be a shame to miss Lost Gravity!

Check out this video ad for Colossos. It would appear that they've given it a new set of trains!

I've been reading some reports that Lost Gravity is down waiting for some new parts. Has anyone else heard about this?

I'm picking a new lens out - specifically for theme park stuff, any photography people have preference between a XX-200 vs XX-300 zoom lens? I want to think that having that extra reach is important with the 300mm zoom when snapping stuff like far away moving roller coasters, but I'm fearful of camera shake and loss of image quality above 200mm.

I like it too, I could just never really figure out what was going on and what it was supposed to mean!

I hereby hijack this thread in the name of Knoebels. Bill, will you second that?

Oh how I wish I had the extra vacation days to take off, because I would totally take you up on that if I did.

Episode 4: "I Hashtag Took On Tigris" or "This Was a Bad Idea, But I'm An Annual Passholder, So Who Cares?" Yesterday, with my Walt Disney World annual pass on its last block-out weekend until the late-season, I got in my car and drove down to Busch Gardens Tampa again, my third time so far. The new hotness, Tigris, had grand opened the day before. Tigris would be my first brand-new coaster since I went to Hersheypark over Memorial Day weekend to ride the original incarnation of Skyrush! Obviously, being Easter weekend, the park was absolutely packed. When I left at 5 PM, the main parking lot had been closed and people were being routed to the Adventure Island lot which also looked nearly full. Had I not been visiting on my annual pass I would have definitely invested in Quick Queue. Also, yesterday was very windy - the Skyride did not open at all, and Falcon's Fury did not open until the middle of the afternoon. I was at the ticketing areas at around forty minutes before opening, and by the time they opened the security checkpoint, the lines were already way far behind. I joined the gaggle in CASUALLY WALKING to Tigris (I was pleasantly surprised that the vast majority of people did not run). Tigris! It's a brand-new coaster! Tigris is pretty good! It rides decently well, the hangtime is really fun, and the colors look great. But everyone's probably asking, what about the comfort collars? Disclaimer, I'm a very small guy. While I could see them in my field of vision, I did not feel them on my body at all. They're basically two floppy rubber straps joined together that hook with a carabiner-like connection on the lap restraint itself. They kind of are just... there. However, the real problem with them and the trains themselves is that you basically have to be a contortionist to get in and out. Ingress and egress are ridiculously tight - the slightly heavier-set woman that rode next to me had some problems. The lap restraints are very large and their "open" position is not far forward at all, plus you have to lift up the comfort collar as you are about to seat yourself. Once you get seated it's a comfortable enough experience but getting there is a challenge. There's a post on the roller coasters subreddit showing that one of the headrests is now bent already because someone held onto it for leverage as they boarded, I rode too far back from the front row to notice. Anyway, here are photos from the rest of the day! I waited 25 minutes or so, but by the time I got off the wait had swelled to two hours. Later in the day it was fluctuating between 45 and 60 minutes. Tigris, THROUGH THE TREES! Except this time it's actually built all the way! Kumba (Happy 26th birthday!) recently received a fresh coat of paint and it looks absolutely gorgeous. My first ride in the mid-morning was almost a walk-on, but when I rode later in the afternoon I probably waited over a half hour! I've never seen it with that kind of queue! Kumba is still absolutely insane and it still remains my favorite coaster in the park. I'm gradually making my way to the back row, Bill, I got to row 5 yesterday! That roll is unreal in any seat. Montu is still excellent but, yet again, the harness wouldn't go down enough on my shrimpy body. Falling into the harness is not fun. I visited two or three months ago on a whim and SheiKra had been down for scheduled maintenance. I waited the longest for it today and it didn't disappoint. Don't look down! Another thing with SheiKra is that whomever designed it didn't seem to take into consideration that, in the mid-afternoon, when you go up the lift hill, you're basically staring directly into the sun! I had to hold my hand in front of my face! Over to Cheetah Hunt now, which I didn't get to ride because the wait was bonkers for the entire day. Does anyone know about this? It's a support that goes nowhere! Nowhere near as immersive as Kilimanjaro Safaris, but hey, I'll take it! One more good one of Cheetah Hunt to round it out.

The park is crowded today, and some of the coasters are being temperamental, but Tigris is pretty good!

Ooof. That one hurt.

You act as if the majority of Busch Gardens Tampa's guests know what a Tempesto even is.

The airtime is still awesome, the roll is still fun, and the general whip of the ride is great. But those valleys are really rough, my body was getting jerked around. Still a good ride overall but I wouldn't re-ride it like I would White Lightning.

Mine Blower yesterday. Goodness, that thing needs some work.

I updated the announcement post with Farup's official on-ride NoLimits video of Saven. Here it is!

Hey everyone, Farup Sommerland has announced a new coaster for the 2020 season - Saven, a custom Vekoma family boomerang! Translated, as the info is so far only available in Danish: The park has also done a complete overhaul to their website. Check it out! https://www.faarupsommerland.dk/da/oplev/saven/ Sheesh, if Djurs and / or Tivoli Gardens get new stuff for 2020 as well I might make another trip to Europe next year!

That's a fair assumption. I recall that when Gerstlauer did the refurbishment on Sooperdooperlooper at Hersheypark (which also included new trains), they added a string of magnetic brakes at the end.

It's a pretty decent ride! Kind of like the "SLC" of regular sit-down coasters. It makes me wonder why it was never cloned like the SLCs were.

Never, ever let one person's opinion dictate how you feel about a park, ride, or experience before you get to go there yourself. For all you know your favorite coaster could end up being Puff The Little Fire Dragon.