texcoaster

Since the internet allows us to find out a LOT about a coaster before we get to travel and ride it ourselves, it can influence how we might feel about a ride even before our trips are planned. Bad or meh reviews can even change trip plans... but have you ever ridden a coaster that you weren't expecting to like very much based on others' opinions, and were shocked to find yourself rearranging your top-10 list on the exit ramp? I'll start: MegaZeph, Jazzland: I included it on my itinerary only because I was going to be driving right past the park on the way home from my trip. I expected one or two rides would be enough. It just didn't look that great, AND it had Gerstlauer trains. WOW. After nearly four hours and more than 40 rides, it had become my #1 woodie. I finally did tear myself away from it and drove home. The Ultimate, Lightwater Valley: Everyone I know who has been on it, hates this ride. I expected to ride it once and join the throngs of haters. OMFG. Yeah, it's weird, it's brutal, the pacing sucks, and the banking on the turns is all wrong. But daaaaaaaaaaamn, I loved that ride! It's just so unique and interesting and the back half of the ride is absolutely insane. I couldn't get enough of it. Vortex, Canada's Wonderland: I had been on it's "clone", Top Gun at PKI. Fun, but nothing special. For whatever reason, though, I hit the brakes on this (SHORT!) coaster laughing my ass off. That was the most fun I've had on a suspended coaster, EVER. Repeat rides did not disappoint. It's my fave suspended coaster. Big Thunder Mountain, Disney Paris: Why oh why oh why couldn't the US versions of this ride kick the ass that this one does? I expected it to be basically a clone of the ones here. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised! La Trace du Hourra, Parc Asterix: Who knew a bobsled coaster could be this much fun? Now I know where Chris Sawyer went to research bobsled coasters for RCT. Hella fun!

When are you planning to hit the Bullet? If it's on a weekend (or the Fri after turkey), I'll try to be down there.

Beemer and coaster05, here's a better idea: RIDE IT before passing judgement on it. Everyone has their own tastes and opinions, and until you try it yourself, your opinion of the ride is pure speculation. You're no more valid than those religious zealots who scream "that movie is evil, don't go see it" when they haven't seen anything but the trailers. When you've ridden it, then I will respect your opinion of it. Not before.

LOL, anyone who knows me will tell you that there is ***NO*** coaster that's better than sex. At least not if you do it right...

Which is my argument. It was poorly built, thus according to you, should fall down on your list, and yet you're proclaiming it's greatness. Makes no sense. OK, I'll try to help you out, then: Rides which are rough because of a very aggressive layout are fine. Boardwalk Bullet absolutely fits into this category. It is IMHO, a great ride. Rides which are rough >>>ONLY<<< because they are poorly maintained or don't offer any reward for their brutality are not fine. Those slide down on my faves list. So even though Bullet is a bit rougher now than it might be after some work is done on the track, that does NOT mean that it's not a great ride. It also gets props from me for being totally unique among wood coasters. There is simply no other woodie experience like it. The compact layout, the incredible sensation of speed, the wild and wicked direction changes, being buried inside the dense structure for most of the ride, the close clearances, and the "15 seconds of insanity" that opens it create something unlike anything you've ever done on a coaster. If the upcoming trackwork takes a bit of the edge off the roughness, then even better. It's not ever going to be smooth, though, simply because of the layout. That's OK by me.

I could do that in exactly the same way that I did when I rode TxGiant in it's opening season. Rough, but fantastic. Likewise for the Coney Cyclone. Even rougher, but a seriously kickass ride. PKD's Grizzly is another one that makes me wish there were a chiropractic booth at the exit ramp, but I love it anyway. Voyage? Hell yeah! Rode it 35 times in a row. I don't see the problem, honestly. Some rides incorporate their rough-n-tumble attitude into the overall experience. If a ride is really good, I will tolerate quite a bit of roughness. Roughness caused by an intense, aggressive layout isn't something that bothers me. On the other hand, roughness caused by poor maintenance or rides that ride rough for other reasons fall way down in my list. Some rides are rougher than they need to be. At the last Lone Star Coasterthon, Giant was unridable. The "good roughness" of its aggressive layout was combined with the "not good roughness" of neglect. Even Judge Roy Scream was rougher than it should've been. It bottomed out HARD on the drops. Is it any wonder that the t-shirt for the event proclaimed "What a STEEL!" and listed all the steelies at the park? Son of Beast? Worst wood coaster experience of my life. Straight track should not beat a person to a pulp. So I suppose it's just a matter of preference. Boardwalk Bullet is a very intense, aggressive ride. Even if it were retrofitted with Intamin track, it would still be so, because of the wild direction changes, the violent ejector air, and the speed at which all of it happens. You just don't have time to prepare for some of those turns. However, putting butter-smooth track on it would take away from some of it's intensity. That first 15 seconds is the most intense wood coaster experience on earth right now, and part of it is BECAUSE it's not smooth. While I agree that it would be nice if that part wasn't brutal (and it's not... yet), I don't want it to ever be steelie-like. In fact, on opening weekend I mentioned to Guru that the layout would be pretty damn boring as a steelie. He agreed.

Well, some of it could be bad luck, I suppose... I mean, you don't know what a coaster will be like before you ride it. But as for the kiddie coasters being milestones, that's often done on purpose. I think it's sorta funny.

I'm only working a half day on the Fri after turkey... Almighty, wanna meet me down there that afternoon? Guru? Coasterphotos? Gotta work off all that stuffing, right?

Not me. I'll go with the great coaster every time.

I'm gay, so there's no wife. The boyfriend doesn't mind me riding as much as I want. He's only got 19 rides so far. He used to be a fighter pilot, so 50mph on a coaster just isn't much of a thrill for him...

I'd blame a crappy Gravity Group design with PTC tracking and a poor construction contractor.. and I haven't even ridden it! "and I haven't even ridden it" 'nuff said. NEXT!

re: coaster by the sea - problems So I suppose that they shouldn't have built the Coney Cyclone, Morey's Great White, Cyclone Racer, or either of the Giant Dippers. It's not being next to the water that's the problem, it's the unbelievably rainy weather we had during the ride's construction plus the fact that nearly every inch of track on this ride is curving in some way. I just hope that the park takes care of it and doesn't let it become Texas' next Giant or Rattler.

I'm sorry, but this one wins, no contest. Going up the lift, there is an overhead track that you MUST duck under. This isn't reach-up-and-try-to-touch-it close, this is duck-down-in-the-car-or-slam-your-head-on-the-track close. Luckily, it happens on the lift, so you see it coming. There's a bridge for the exit ramp on the log flume at Gold Reef City that's the same way. You have to practically lie down in the flume log to get under the bridge!

There were lots of issues with this one due to the length of time it took to build it and the extraordinarily wet summer we had here. The wood literally changed shape on the bay side (the first sections to be built) as it dried out. It's been no secret that the ride is rougher and slower than was planned, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if the bay side was retracked much more quickly than most woodies would be. It's noticably rougher than the rest of the ride, and some riders complain that the ride is "too jerky". "Shuffling" (to answer a question in a previous post) is when the cars bang back and forth from the left side of the track to the right in an effort to find center. When you ride the back car, watch the cars in front of you. Noticable wiggling and such is an indication of shuffle.

Well, I took my 400th ride on Boardwalk Bullet tonight. Yay! Man, they just can't retrack this thing soon enough. Rains earlier in the day softened up the wood a bit so it wasn't brutal, but the thing is suffering from the Dinn shuffle worse than a Dinn woodie! The bottom of the first drop is jackhammering pretty hard, the upper bay turn has three NASTY slams, and the train is crawling over the next big hill like a granny with a walker. The rest of the ride is still the same, but that first third is worthy of a chiropractor visit these days. Even so, it's still a great ride. I just hope they can smooth it out when they go to replace some track. Every woodie needs track replaced from time to time.... I just hope they hit this one sooner rather than later.

I think Dinner in the Sky should be a drop ride. Haul up to the top, then put your face over the plate. When it drops, catch the food in your mouth as it flies up. Repeat until dessert. The lantern ride was a hang glider ride of some kind. I don't think it's a bouncy bouncy like the kanga. I still don't get the lanterns with hang gliding, though. And why was there green slime on the motor housing platform? What theme are they going for with green slime, coach lanterns, and hang gliders?

A lot of these are great suggestions. Unfortunately, I live in Houston, so getting up to Behemoth and back in a week isn't really feasible if I also need to visit parks along the way. I really like the idea of Flying Turns being #500. It would be my only new credit there, but Phoenix and Twister are faves, so it wouldn't be a wasted trip. I also like the idea of Kingda Ka or El Toro being #500, but am a little bit leery of setting everything up for those two to be #499 and #500 (in whatever order) and finding that Ka is down for the day, screwing up the whole plan. Is it more reliable than it used to be? I've already got the IT'z credit here. There's a tiny little oval kiddie thing at Zuma, but it's almost never running. The X-coaster at Magic Springs would be good, but I probably won't wait that long to ride it. A lot of it is going to depend on the $$$. Welcome to real life.

I'm at 481 and need just 19 more for 500. I want #500 to be noteworthy, not some meh clone. I could either go big and gnarly, like Led Zep or Farenheit, or I could go campy and pick some tiny kiddie ride somewhere, or I could find something totally unique (like a prototype or homemade coaster). I'm up for suggestions. Here's the hard part: I'm travelling by car, I've got just a week, and I probably won't have the funds to hit 15 parks to get 19 coasters. I need to maximize the most new coasters per park as possible. Here's my current list: http://coasterguy.squarespace.com/the-coaster-list/ I'll probably do the West Tx Coaster Roundup this year, which will add a handful of new rides (how many depends on whether the new coasters will be up and running) and I want to take a weekender to Hot Springs to add the X-coaster. So I may only need 13 or so more for the "big trip". Any ideas?

The Mil-Flyers that everyone seems to love so much also have every row as a wheel seat. If the train is flexible and doesn't shake itself senseless trying to maneuver around the track, then wheel seats don't make that big of a difference. If those new PTCs handle turns better, I'd love to see Boardwalk Bullet get a set!

^^^ I'm jealous. EGF is my favorite steelie.

I'm digging the X2 trains, but the ferris wheel lift seems like such a gimmick. Oh, the downtime I'm foreseeing!!! The trains for Hard Rock Park look interesting. Which coaster is that for?

So yesterday, I went down to Kemah and rode the Boardwalk Bullet 88 times (bringing me up to 376 total... I think I actually passed up Guru). Yeah, I'm REALLY sore today. Anyway, I was thinking about other coasters that I've ridden a bunch of times in a day. I rode Viper at SFAW 89 times on 7/10/89 (they gave me a t-shirt with the coaster logo and the date/rides airbrushed on the back). That was specifically to try to break the record for that ride, which was a measly 40-something at the time. Word got out, and even the park GM came over to take a ride with me. It was fun. I rode TxCyclone 50 or more times per day on numerous occasions. Their "no single rider" policy helped, in that they would tell me to wait by the exit and fill in the empty seat next to a single rider. It kept them from having to find a single, and it kept me from waiting in line! Everyone was happy. I rode Screechin Eagle at Americana more than 40 times in the pouring rain once. The bottom of the train had nearly 3 inches of water sloshing around. DAMN, that was fun. MegaZeph hooked me in its opening season. I had planned to stop in, ride each coaster once, then head home. I had to work the next day, and Jazzland was the last stop on a 2-week, 70-coaster tour. I got on MZ at noon for my "one ride". At 5pm I finally had to convince myself that I *REALLY* needed to make the 7-hour drive back home. Not sure how many rides it was, but that was pretty much all I did for those 5 hours. There have been lots of other times on different rides during ERT sessions, but I really don't even think about those. What coasters have you ridden a bunch of times in one day (non ERT)?

...none of which makes the ride experience any better for the customer. In fact, I'll bet that most of the park visitors wouldn't even notice those changes. What they will notice, however, is how badly the ride beats them.

While I freely admit to my suggested names being tongue-in-cheek, I also think that every one of them is better than "Goliath". So, if you want to see it as a sarcastic thread OR a "real" topic, then I'm OK with it either way.

I'll start: Holy Roller -- For any coaster located in the Bible belt Xerox - the Ride -- For the umpteenth installation of a design (like SFFT's BTR clone) Screaming Queen -- temporary name used on a park's "gay day" Major Miner -- for a large mine train Stevie Wonder -- enclosed, lights-off coaster that plays cool music (oh, man, I'm gonna get slammed for that one, I know it)