andybarnes84

The original Rock N' Roller Coaster in Orlando, no question. Great theming and atmosphere, the offload station is pretty cool too.

Thinking of being able to ride into my golden years, I'll say Phoenix.

Oh yeah forgot to mention Rita/Desert Race, thanks caffeinedemon! Perhaps it's because they lack top hats but the elector air on these things is awesome, proper sore thigh stuff. Wish more parks had them and maybe one to be built indoors but that'll never happen.

Gwazi was pretty darn bad, they need to get rid of the seat belts for a start. Superman:UF at SFGAdv was equally shocking, 4 to 5 min dispatches in June. As for a general park, I'll say Six Flags America. Made SFMM look like Europa Park. I've yet to experience the wonders of Mt Olympus and probably never will.

This is a given but I'm going to be highly predictable and say Europa Park, insanely quick dispatches which often don't involve physically checking restraints, very rare! I believe they use visual indicators on the trains to check instead or just put their trust in the software. I also noticed the great operations on Fahrenheit earlier this year, really engaging and friendly staff too which was a shock!

A few of my choices would be Shockwave and G Force at Drayton Manor, Gold Rusher at SFMM, Pegasus at Europa Park (great airtime in back row on first drop and decent forces through the turns for a kiddie coaster), Canyon Blaster at Adventuredome, Jubilee Odyssey at Fantasy Island and Baacklot Stunt Coaster (any) to name but a few.

I'm dissapointed to see hardly any love for Grand National (far superior to Racer in my humble opinion) but I'm guessing it's due to the low ridership by members on here so I'll post the TPR video to demonstrate just how good a racer this is: I loved Lightning Racer at Hershey (especially at night) and how the tracks twist around each other at one point, a very close second for me!

I've had the pleasure of being evacuated from Tower of Terror (at the screen before you reverse to exit) and The Mummy (at the "fake" station, even though they turned the fire off it's was pretty darn hot in there while we were stuck). Both evacs involved walkthroughs of the backstage areas which was pretty cool (especially Mummy).

Great philosophical post! Thanks for taking the time to write it. I agree with most of what you say, in many ways I see it as an inevitability of aging, as I get a little older, the coasters that I started an unhealthy obsession with in the early years of this hobby are now the forgotten rides, even though many are still popular with the GP. This is partly why I still enjoy visiting Blackpool, despite it's recent changes, it transports me to a time long forgotten at most other parks in the World. I also got a real kick out of Kennywood and Knoebels this past summer. From my comparatively limited experience, the following would be my personal choices of legendary/milestone coasters that I've ridden, both relatively new and old: Kumba Nemesis Grand National Space Mountain (DL or WDW) Batman Clones Revolution (SFMM) Big Thunder Mountain El Toro Dragon Khan Coney Island Cyclone Magnum XL-200 Millennium Force Thunderbolt Phoenix X2

I'm so jealous that you guys can have the option of moving to such places, my vote is definitely for Orlando, it really has everything all year round, constantly innovative attractions that cost mega bucks, those summers get pretty sweaty though. I'd just like to reiterate how jealous I am with an appropriate smiley

Exactly, it looks just like a Schwarzkopf design but then you realise that Pinfari built this, the company that never quite understood the basic concepts of banking and transitions. If it was half the size then I wouldn't have mentioned it but this thing reaches 45mph in those evil tiny trains which have no consideration for the fact that most riders will probably have legs. My vote for worst wooden coaster would be Roar at SFA, I'm sure there are much worse but once was more than enough, and I managed 3 rides on the Coney Island Cyclone no probs the week before.

Give Piers a break dude, I think he was being a little sarcastic but probably referring to not only thirteen but Hex and of course sub terra which yet again is a flipping bunch of shipping containers left over from Swarm no doubt. It's becoming a bit of a joke with the shipping container hotel opening at Thorpe next year, what next? I wouldn't be surprised if the secret element involves a portacabin, buckets and some duct tape.

Without a doubt, my vote goes to a coaster that really shouldn't exist anymore but still persists year after year, Tornado at M&Ds Scotland. This is a coaster most of you wouldn't have ridden, but need I say more than a 14 year old, 80ft Pinfari with those awful trains made for 5 year old kids and not one but TWO loops. I can't even imagine what this thing must have been like when it had a corkscrew. Tornado is proof that Pinfari really should have stuck to building kiddie coasters, or at the most, their Looping Star model. As far as I know, the only other version of this in the World was built in Argentina and lasted just 7 years before it was torn down. I came off this thing with bruises that then started bleeding from colliding with various parts of the train, along with whiplash to last a few days. Any SLC after this seems like a B&M Invert and in a perverse way I'm glad to have been on Tornado to bring my understanding of smoothness/roughness into perspective. Seriously people, this is a coaster from Damian himself Here's the proof (and this is when it was only a year old, I went on this crapfest in it's 13th year)

This looks a little bleak, like the motel 6 version of the yotel concept, I just hope that those 'cabins' are easy to wipe down. Shipping containers can be used to create interesting venues such as the trendy 'boxpark' pop-up mall in London but creating a hotel out of them just seems a little too much.

Pleasant surprises: Millennium Coaster & Jubilee Odyssey at Fantasy Island, Skegness (UK) The World's smoothest Vekoma and biggest custom SLC took me by real surprise this summer. Having had very little desire to make the trip to the remote location along the coast, a place that makes Blackpool look like Malibu, I finally made it. Why hadn't I made the trip sooner? OK, the rest of the park leaves *a lot* to be desired to say the least, but these are two gems that really should be somewhere more respectable. The Millennium Coaster wasn't the most intense thing ever but I really enjoyed the inversions and was so thankful for it's B&M smoothness. Jubilee Odyssey had, without a doubt, the best first drop of any invert I've ridden, and I'm so glad I chose the back row for the first ride. Unpleasant surprise: Kingda Ka, sorry folks but I must have caught this beast on an off day. As soon as it took off (the launch not being as punchy as TTD or Stealth) I was convinced the train was going to shatter into a thousand pieces from it's violent shaking side to side. Crawled over the top, continued violent shaking all the way to the brakes. I couldn't take in what just happened as I had a big headache after what was just 18 (?) seconds. Riding it's far superior cousin in Ohio a few days prior obviously didn't help. I did ride a couple more times just to make sure I got a balanced view but experienced the same thing every time.

I enjoyed Sub Terra when it opened but have yet to go on it since the improvements. Thirteen was over hyped indeed and the coaster layout leaves a lot to be desired although I still really enjoy the drop (which is far superior to Verbolten), however after looking closely at the plans for SW7 I think the UK is getting one of the most satisfying coasters in recent years, especially in terms of ride length which is usually economically short here. Just a recap on how SW7 should turn out (after it leaves the building containing the secret "thingy"), POV at 3:00.

Being a Brit I'll be highly predictable and say the yet unnamed coaster at Alton Towers. Outlaw Run does look amazing but not sure how long it'll be until I can get there. Other than those 2, nothing else "tickles my fancy" (what does that saying really mean?).

Thanks for posting the trip report, great pictures and descriptions, it's so refreshing to hear someone not think Nemesis is the best thing since sliced bread (as they say over here).

Being honest with myself, I'll controversially say Verbolten. It's a great addition for the family audience but didn't wow me anywhere near as much as I hoped, thought the scenery in the ride building was cheap and it just seemed to lack intensity where I had expected to find it. The trains also rattled like a Lada. As I said a fun ride for the family demographic and certainly a cut above average for theming but not one that pulls me back to BGW.

1. End of the night ride back right on Skyrush, a coaster I really wasn't that excited about during construction which just completely blew me away and has reignited my faith in still being able to be surprised by a coaster after years of riding them. 2. Phoenix and hysterical laughter. 3. Finally getting to Europa Park and being most thrilled by the rides that are traditionally knocked.

Gotta be Skyrush no doubt about it!

California Nevada Florida New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Virginia Ohio Delaware Maryland DC That's it unfortunately

Kumba, built when B&M were brave!

Seems a lot of coasters being mentioned here aren't ones that are generally 'hated' and I'm struggling to come up with one myself but I'll mention Thirteen at Alton Towers, find it to be a fun coaster that most other enthusiasts seem to disagree with.

I'd agree with this, most modern coasters feel too safe and comfortable so riding this was a bit of a shock to the system! And this was on the same trip I went on TTD which I loved but oddly didn't make me anywhere near as nervous. The Wild Mouse at Blackpool comes a very close second.