viking86

I know Balder is ranked very highly all things considered, but does anyone have insight as it why it was so "low" this year? Has it gotten a bit rough? Or do some of the voters who've ridden it simply have different preferences? As for Voyage, I managed to genuinely love it in 2010 when it was very rough. But I'm still surprised it ended up so high, since so many people have ridden it recently and denounced it for being so painful. I would've expected that influence to be more apparent despite the people who remember its smoother times. Still...bring on the Timberliners! I rode Balder in may last year and while I think its a very good ride, its still slow around the turns. If you look at many of the coasters built over the last years, particularly by GCI, they are very fast and doesnt really slow down until they hit the brakes. For me Balder looses some of the 'wow-factor' with the slow turns. As for roughness thats not an issue. Going through the turns you feel its a wooden coaster, but its still an very smooth wooden coaster.

Ive been on 6 of the top 14 rides, not bad. Its also very similar to my own list. I might put Thunderbird above Balder, but otherwise I think I'd rate it identical. El Toro is definately a fair winner, that ride totally blew me away. 1 El Toro SFGAd NJ 307 163 0 0 1.0000 3 Boulder Dash Lake Compounce CT 193 161 2 0 0.9877 7 5 Phoenix Knoebel's PA 228 159 3 1 0.9785 67 8 Balder Liseberg SE 116 155 7 1 0.9540 14 13 Thunderbird PowerPark FI 48 150 12 1 0.9233 14 Twister Grona Lund SE 45 148 13 2 0.9141

Twister @ Gröna Lund. The queue line is right in the middle of the ride and its really loud when the train is flying by.

I second that. What an amazing ride!!

Looking good! It kinda reminds me of Loch Ness Monster in a way.

The two alpine coasters we rode in Austria during the ECC trip in 2005. The first one was very well-built and smooth, but because it started raining it became ridicilously fast, which resulted in some insane lateral G-forces through the turns. The fact that you only have a seatbelt and minimal lateral support, and there are nets on the outside of pretty much every turn, it became the scariest and at the same time one of the funniest ride experiences Ive ever had. The second ride of the day was scary in a completely different way, as you sit in these tiny cars riding on a single pipe through a million Arrow- esque transitions. Pictures: http://www.coasterclub.org/trips/reports/2005/rhapsody/?d=4

After not visiting a single park in 2009 and 2010 I finally visited some parks again earlier this year. Gröna Lund Liseberg Tusenfryd

In order: New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Connecticut Massachusetts

Yeah I was totally amazed by that when I visited SFNE a few years ago. We tried to ask the ride-attendant at the entry to the station, but all we got in response was a rapid "No!". I dont think I would call it the worst stations as I cant really remember that much of how it looked inside (6 years ago), but Thorpe Park wins it for me when it comes to "worst station experiences". On both Colossus and Nemesis Inferno they played ridicilously LOUD music, it was just a nightmare. Of course I have to put a lot of blame on the British teens as well, particularly girls. On every single train rolling slowly out of the station there was always a group of people screaming in this insanely high-pitched noise. I Could never work in such a place. Just waiting in line was enough to get a headache.... of course it might just have been that particular day as there were several thousand school kids and teens in the park that day.

You might be a coaster nerd if... you look at the landscape and think "Yeah I could put a lifthill there, a drop there, a turn there, etc..." until you have a complete layout. I used to do it all the time when I was younger.

Correct, your turn!

I visited the park 4 years ago (see video on my youtube account) and when I saw that you were from Finland, I immediately understood what ride it was. A quick check on RCDB confirmed my thoughts. Heres a picture from me:

Vonkaputous at Linnanmäki

Most people doesnt know that there are many identical rides, and Six Flags saves a ton of money by buying less custom designs. Brilliant if you ask me. Of course there will be more coaster enthusiasts travelling if the parks build something unique, but we are such a small minority. Most people will only visit their local park(s) no matter what rides are built.

For me its the Mindbender accident. The picture of the accident site with the covered body on the ground just creeps the heck outta me.

I think the suicide theory sounds highly unlikely. Of course there is always the possibility that I might be wrong, but to me it just seems strange that a person who is planning to commit suicide goes to a park where he might be allowed on a ride, and if he is allowed he might not be properly secured and he might be thrown from the ride and he might be killed. It just seems that there are so many "easier" ways to kill yourself...

This is definately true. I visited Gröna Lund and Liseberg this spring so I got to try both types. Gröna Lund has a 260 ft second generation drop tower called Fritt Fall, with two normal cars and one floorless, standup, tilting car. I actually prefer the normal sitdown version. On the tilting side you can see the track all the way down, which makes the drop feel less scary IMO as you can see where you are going. On the sitdown version you are just looking straight ahead and you can not see any part of the tower structure, which to me increases the free-fall feeling. Im really struggling to decide which I prefer, Fritt Fall or the 300ft Atmosfear gyrodrop at Liseberg. Atmosfear has an amazing view as its located on the top of a hill, and the drop seems to last forever, but it definately lacks the force that Fritt Fall has. If I have to make a decision..... I would put them both in my backyard.

A comment on my Six Flags New England video on youtube, which contains off-ride footage only: "Why didnt you go on any of the rollercoasters?"

Exactly this. But I'm glad the actual family are the understanding ones. They do have a point and it really does give you chills. But then, you get to the stupid, uneducated, and overly dramatic teenage girls and well, the story just goes downhill from there. If you ask me, the typical American teenager is enough for me to worry enough about this country alone. I wouldnt blame the girls too much. They are young, have just witnessed or been near a fatal accident and suddenly they have a camera right in front of their face. I think the media are the stupid ones for actually publishing this. This does not just happen with young american girls, it happens all over the world. Kids, teens, adults.... people who have just been involved in a traumatic incident gets a camera showed up in their face, they end up saying something stupid and the media doesnt think twice about publishing it.

I broke a bone in my left wrist when I was 10 years old, after I ran in front of a big truck. I still have a scar on my forehead.

What a beatiful place! Love your pictures. It looks like a proper vintage fair. I would love to go there just to soak up the atmosphere and have a beer.

Its very much possible to hit a B&M on a bad day. I remember when I rode Katun in 2005, there was a huge difference between the two trains they were running. One was buttersmooth, while the other one was quite shaky.

Atmosfear at Liseberg is now my favorite drop ride.

How is El Toro holding up these days? I rode Balder this weekend and it was a bit bumpy around the turns. Not uncomfortable in any ways, but noticable. The turns on Balder are very mild and gentle so It really made me wonder if the ride experience on El Toro has changed since I rode it in 2008, particularly through those crazy turns towards the end. Is it still smooth and comfortable through the entire ride??

You can also add that much of the time they were able to dispatch the train early enough so that the next train would just roll directly into the station without stopping. The restraint checking was definately very different from El Toro a few years ago. On ET they were pushing down the lapbar on each rider to make sure that there was as little space as possible. On Balder they just seemed to know that as long as the seatbelt is on and the lapbar is down its perfectly safe. It really made it fun as I had 1-2 inches of space between me and the lapbar on every single ride.