coasterer

Amazing trip report. Thanks for providing so much depth and detail! Mexico City is amazing - one of our favorite cities, for sure. Looking forward to the rest of the report! Thanks for posting

At SFOG, the ideal situation for me is for them to open Georgia Scorcher and Georgia Cyclone when they open the gates, and get both in before they drop the rope, after which I'll head to Goliath first then double back to Mindbender and Batman before continuing around the park clockwise.

Whoa! Finally able to appreciate the S hill, and the speed hill after the ampersand. This just got a whole lot more exciting for me. Thanks for digging up these pictures! Great finds

Okay great, I'm also surprised this thread didn't exist before now, but I love ranking things and talking coasters so I'm game. The really great ones I'm missing are Expedition Geforce and Shambhala. And a few others. 1) Goliath (Walibi World). Maybe my top steel coaster overall. This to me is coaster perfection. It's maybe not the craziest/biggest/most unique ride out there, but it is flawless. This is the standard by which I judge all other traditional coasters. 2) Skyrush. I only have one ride on this thing, but it was unbelievable. I very much question how good my one ride on it was, and am looking forward to giving it more room to cement its spot. But hey, from what I remember it was amazing - not my favorite by any means, but amazing. 3) Behemoth. Definitely the best of the B&M hypers for me, the airtime is amazing, and the setting is just stunning. 4) Superman SFNE. Count me in the group that considers this ride overhyped. I'm actually tempted to rank the DL model ahead of it out of spite, but this spot is fine for now. 5) Goliath (SFOG). It's amazing when it's amazing, probably because it's a little more concise than some of the others. But it does tend to rattle itself into unimpressive-ness way too often. Depends on the day. 6) Nitro. I rode this thing well over a hundred times when I went to school in NJ, and still can't fully commit to where to put it. Goliath, Nitro, Raging Bull, and even Apollo's could all switch spots depending on which parts of the ride I focus on. Nitro is probably the most "classic" though. 7) Phantom's Revenge. This ride blew me away, but I only got one ride on it, and have a natural aversion to ranking Arrow rides any higher than this. My wife is from Pittsburgh though so I'll ride it again eventually. It may go up. 8) Superman DL. I love this thing. It's unique, and it does what it does and I'm more than fine with that. Love the location too. 9) Raging Bull. I grew up on Raging Bull and refuse to let my love for this ride be tainted by the trims. I'm in denial. The first drop is heaven and I love the unique layout. 10) Superman el Ultimo Escape (SFMexico). Totally under-appreciated / under-ridden ride that is almost as good as Phantom's but not quite. 11) Apollo's Chariot. This one to me is one of the more forgettable hypers? But I did really like it a lot. 12) Superman SFA. The crappiness of the park has more to do with this ride's ranking than the actual ride. 13) Magnum XL 200. Didn't hate it, but certainly don't love it. I remember someone once wrote, in a caption of a picture of Magnum's 20th anniversary sign, "Magnum's getting something new for its 20th anniversary?? I hope it's a new set of thighs." And it still cracks me up to this day. 14) Intimidator. Literally, the most exciting thing about this ride is the smell of BBQ as you approach the brake run, and I love B&M hypers. 15) Mamba. This is quite fun if you're in the mood for a leisurely stroll around the park, but none of the other hypers suck enough for it to rank any higher. 16) Titan(SFOT)? I'm not a huge fan of this model, and Goliath was closed when I was at SFMM. It was fine, but didn't impress. 17) Wild Thing. Love the long sustained airtime hill and huge turn around, but otherwise this is pretty forgettable. 18) Steel Force. I can barely keep this one straight from Mamba, so who can really say where it should go. 19) Pepsi Max Big One. Not bad, just meandering foreeeeever. Love this park though.

I'm having trouble getting my mind around the blue. The green, as others have said, was so iconic. But that being said, I can't think of a blue coaster that looks bad so...

2014 Medusa Steel RMC, SFMexico 2010 Prowler GCI, WoF 2006 Voyage GG, HW 2005 Wild Train Pax, Fantasialand 2004 Storm Runner Intamin, Hersheypark 2001 Thundercoaster Vekoma, Tusenfryd 2000 Katun B&M, Mirabilandia 1998 Shivering Timbers CCI, Michigan's Adventures 1991 Phantom's Revenge Arrow, Kennywood And the American Western themed parade from Slagharen to round it out. I also don't believe in food. No food. Just a bar across the street.

I've been to Cedar Point probably around 5 times in my life, all spaced out from 1996 to 2013. And yet I don't think I've ever ridden one ride there more than twice in a single day. The park is just too big and there are too many things to do. At almost any other park, I'll ride everything once, then marathon the one or two I liked the most. Similarly, if I go back to a park, I have no problem just riding my favorites and not worrying about the rest. But with Cedar Point, even when I go back, I find myself willingly riding an easy 8-10+ different rides before I even think about rerides. And that's with me selecting the best, time-worthy rides. This is part of what makes Cedar Point so unique and amazing. No other park is like that.

Ugh, these rides are just perfection. Love seeing another one go up. I like the color scheme too!

Oooo, an airtime hill on a wingrider?? That'll be interesting. The photoshop is great, haha. I love the way the track fades into the sky.

I've done nearly 400 on the Batman clones, and the vast majority of those were at SFGAm. Love that thing.

I've never lived close enough to a park to merit working there, but I just wanted to say that I'm loving this thread. It is so cool to read about all your experiences and so clearly see your passion for you individual rides. It also makes me appreciate a crew that cares about running a ride well so much. Thanks guys! Keep the stories coming, these are great.

^ I'm in the same boat. I've only managed one ride on it, and the majority of that was spent convincing my wife (who loves most coasters but can't do the vertical drops and anything that spins) that she wasn't going to die. So I don't really have a fair assessment haha.

This thing is gorgeous. It looks so classic. A huge throwback to the pre I305 era, hitting all the major boxes (big steep drop, ejector air, an inversion, twisty goodness, small pops, interaction with the paths, etc) in a more traditional way a la SFNE's Superman and Holland's Goliath. I love that. It looks like it hauls through the course, and I love the return leg, it reminds me of Fury. This is like a collective iteration of all of their previous models, which I think is awesome. I'm so curious to hear how the 4-across trains ride. And I absolutely love that this coaster is going up in Poland, bringing another country into the "coaster big leagues". I was in Krakow in 2013 and was VERY pleasantly surprised. This is awesome.

Wow, I didn't realize China was getting a B&M hyper either. Very cool. I hope it's a good one. Do we know if it's going to be the old school four across seating, or the staggered 2 and 2?

I've had 3 home parks over the years. Growing up - SFGAm Raging Bull Batman Goliath Viper Vertical Velocity American Eagle X-Flight Superman Demon Whizzer Little Dipper Dark Knight Spacely's Sprocket Rocket College years - Six Flags Great Adventure El Toro Nitro Kingda Ka Bizarro Batman Superman Joker Skull Mountain Green Lantern Mine Train Dark Knight Currently - Six Flags Over Georgia Goliath Georgia Scorcher Mindbender Batman Georgia Cyclone Superman Great American Scream Machine Dare Devil Dive Blue Hawk Dahlonega Mine Train

These are the major remaining parks on my "bucket list". Ordered with the highest priority/desire at the top Busch Gardens Tampa Port Aventura Grona Lund Tokyo Disney Sea Gold Reef City Parque Espana Holiday Park Parc Asterix Europapark Sea World Orlando Universal Studios Japan Mysterious Island Silverwood Knight Valley Vialand Fantasiana (Strasswalchen) Canobie Lake Park

Okay, we've finally closed out our season with a trip to Texas, so I'm ready to contribute. 7. Goliath 6. Twisted Colossus 5. New Texas Giant 4. Iron Rattler 3. Outlaw Run 2. Lightning Rod 1. Medusa Steel Goliath is clearly the weakest of the lot in terms of composition and what it does (or doesn't do). As such, it's kind of forgettable for me. Twisted Colossus was great but the second lift makes this coaster really hard for me to assess and place properly. Because it's shorter and broken in two, I have a hard time placing it higher than any of the others. Comparing NTaG and Iron Rattler is so difficult, because they're so different, but average out to about the same. I think Iron Rattler is actually more interesting and has a couple more standout moments, which is why it gets the edge. But the length, sheer scale, and amount of airtime hills on NTaG makes me almost reconsider. As it is, I was expecting to like NTaG more, but Iron Rattler's weirdness actually was more interesting to me than NTaG's steady hills for days. Iron Rattler was a joy. It's first drop was incredible, and the barrel roll up onto the quarry was so neat. It was sooo smooth and re-rideable too. Outlaw Run was wild, but it's not completely my cup of tea. I can concede that it's better than the previous four just by its balls-to-the-wall insanity, but it is too short and in some ways, the layout is a little underdeveloped for me. I did not love the double barrel roll even though I thought I would. These top two are the clear favorite for me, head and shoulders (relatively) above the rest. I go back and forth on which is 'better', but for now I'll say this. Lightning Rod is absurd. It's incredible. It is far and away one of the most intense coasters in the world, and definitely the most intense of the RMC lot I've ridden. The quadruple down is to die for. Everything is amazing. But I don't think it's my favorite. Medusa Steel, to me, is the whole package. It is perfect in every single way, over every inch of its course. The pacing is sublime. The setting is beautiful, the airtime is ample, the inversions are exactly placed, the course is taken at full speed without bordering on uncomfortable, and I can't help but gush about this thing whenever I get the chance. There's just something about it that makes this ride so special. I don't think I'd argue with anyone that says Lightning Rod is 'better', but at this point and time, Medusa Steel is definitely my favorite, and, as a previous poster put it a page or two back, the coaster I dream about when I think of RMC. My wife would rank them as follows: 7. Goliath - (she can barely remember that we rode this one lol, and almost can't believe that it's an RMC) 6. Outlaw Run - (the back seat was a little rough for her and left her with a sour taste) 5. Iron Rattler - (nice, but in her words, a little weak at times) 4. Twisted Colossus - (just a lot of fun) 3. New Texas Giant - (very rideable, and she loved how long it was) 2. Medusa Steel - (amazing but not as good as Lightning Rod) 1. Lightning Rod - (hands down favorite)

My wife and I were at the park for our first time this afternoon. We were really really impressed by the theming, landscaping, attention to detail, and overall atmosphere. It was quite a charming park, up there with Six Flags Mexico in that regard. Iron Rattler was really great too. We enjoyed it quite a bit. The first drop was amazing in the back, but the barrel roll was super cool in the front. It was a little weak compared to some of their finest (Medusa, Lightning Rod, Outlaw Run), but super enjoyable, and far from their least impressive. We'll ride New Texas Giant tomorrow to properly compare. Superman Krypton would be great if so many other B&Ms didn't feel so similar. It was definitely in the mid-upper B&M echelon though. Our first two hours in the park were great and we got 6 or so rides in, but the park got slammed by mid-afternoon. After an hour wait for the boomerang, we finished on Goliath and aborted around 4:20, having ridden everything at least once (and Iron Rattler twice), and starting to feel overwhelmed by the crowds. As such, we didn't get to see any of the fright fest stuff, but we really enjoyed our time there.

5. Afterburn 4. Batman clones 3. Alpengeist 2. Nemesis 1. Katun Haven't been able to get around to Pyrenees, Montu, or Banshee yet

Agreed. My non-enthusiast friends weren't too smitten by it their first ride, claiming roughness, but they enjoyed it much more the second time. That intensity can be really jarring when you're not prepared for it. But that 'pothole' at the bottom of the big drop is very noticeable and definitely uncomfortable if not outright painful. The rest of it is glass smooth, just rocket-level intense.

It is an intriguing idea, especially if RMC can really establish themselves (and I think they're well on their way) as a company that creates durable, long lasting rides that track well and are reasonably priced, insofar as they really separate themselves from the competition from a park appeal standpoint. It is something to note that just about every coaster company provides a wide variety of models and types, so it will be cool to see how RMC develops and expands their repertoire of offerings in the years to come. I do think that should a park ever approach RMC for a less intense concept, RMC would be able to deliver in spades (look at Gravity Group's family woodies, or Intamin's smaller accelerators). I do agree with Robb though that it isn't something they need to explore at this moment because they have so much momentum with their current offerings. But if the demand is there and a park wants it... it would be cool to see a lot of the older, more uncomfortable, almost outdated mine train rides be reimagined by RMC.

Does anybody have any insight into how a park goes about selling a used coaster, and at what price? I saw on rcdb that Kanonen cost 50,000,000 Swedish Kroner, which comes about to about $5.8 million today. That's not a terrible price at all for a good adult steel coaster. Would they try to sell it at close to that price, or would it be significantly discounted because it's not new? I'd be interested to hear more about the process if anyone has any insight.

Now you guys got me thinking, this would be the perfect ride for a park in a developing country that was finally ready to make the jump into "real coasters". Something like Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, even Brazil. It would be awesome to see Kanonen used to put a relatively obscure country (coaster-wise) on the map. It could really shine in a place like that.

Yeah, I don't get this. I just can't figure out how a competent management team takes a look at the mixed experiences, mixed reviews, and logistical nightmares that have come from every other VR coaster conversion and says "YES we want THAT", even despite VR being such a relatively cheap "upgrade". What am I missing from a management perspective that makes it worthwhile to drop $20+ million on a B&M, then completely throw efficiency and guest experience out the window for a cheap arcade thrill? Am I overstating the ability of the GP to see through coaster VR as nothing more than a cheap gimmick? Am I undervaluing the actual desire for GP to have VR on coasters? Maybe I haven't talked to enough people, but I still haven't met a single person that has said "Yep, that was well worth the trouble, I wish all coasters were this way". I just don't get it.

^^ Seriously haha. Kanonen is one of those rides I have to look back at my notes and rankings from the time to figure out how I thought about it. Almost no recollection of the actual onride experience. I also agree that with Helix there now, Kanonen isn't really needed. This whole project looks stunning. I love the concept, the level of attention to immersion, and the use of cohesive story, it's spectacular. And the detail on that station?? It looks absolutely amazing. That video was the perfect glimpse into what the park management team's thought process is. And it just reminds me of how perfect Sweden is, as a country. Very exciting update for me, it's such a thoughtful investment, and should really round out the coaster line up nicely.