Do you like it in the front, back, or the middle?

[Meteornotes]

Prefer the back for the most part, but will often just take a seat towards the middle if the wait is much shorter. I hate standing around!

 

dt

[Moose]

^I Completely agree.

 

On woodies I try to avoid wheel seats.

[VinTheAttendant]

I kind of have my own system when it comes to where I ride in a coaster. If I know that I can ride a coaster many times or almost any time I want (local parks or parks I visit annually), I tend to go for the back more often. If I am riding a world class coaster after traveling for many hours and many miles just to ride, I tend to go for the front. If I'm at the same park as the world class coaster and riding the other credits, I tend to go by how the row lines look (though sometimes I make front and back exceptions if those pens are unusually short). But here's what I feel:

Hyper/Giga-coasters - just as good in the front as the back, but two totally different experiences.

Strata-coasters - Front is a lot of fun, but avoid the middle

Inverted coasters - just like hypers, front provides an incredible visual experience, but all the best forces are in the back.

X2 - The back was pretty painful, but I had a better experience towards the front.

El Toro - Back! Back! Back! Back! Back! Back!

Every other kind of coaster, I'll take whatever seat I can get. But there are also some coasters that kick @$$ no matter where you sit.

-GCI woodies

-Boulder Dash

-Fahrenheit

-and a whole bunch of others I'm too lazy to think about.

[alilstronger]

For me it depends on the coaster:

 

All wooden I want to be in the back - I LOVE to feel the pull of the train and get whipped around. Plus personally I feel like I get more airtime in the back.

 

Everything else I like to a ride on both back and front. I do love the front on inverts as as well as floorless. Also anything that is really tall (above 200 feet) I prefer the back as my first ride. I feel like in the back I experience all of the first hill because by the time the back is at the top the front has already went down the hill a tad. Now something like Nitro I love the front because for some reason it just scares the crap out of me - well I guess it is because there is nothing to hold on to. The none lay down superman coasters are fun at night in the front. I remember being on that on the North East trip last year sitting in the front alone at night - it was pretty awesome. But then again I got on it and sat in the back and literally was the only one in the back of the ride - it was a very surreal feeling.

[Kafka]

It depends heavily on the ride, on wooden coasters I love the back. Its significantly more intense then the front. On steel coasters I prefer the front except on hypercoasters.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

I usually prefer the front even though the wait is often twice as long as any other row. I just love the view and not having to stare at the back of someone's head for most of the ride. When the front row is really really long, I'll sometimes take the second-to-front row.

 

On wooden coasters, I generally prefer the back.

 

If I have time, I try to ride at least once in the front and once in the back.

[XYZ]

I prefer both the front & back since both have pros and cons that cancel eachother out.

[gisco]

I like the front for the view, the back you seem to feel the force a little more but I usually end up in the middle because the lines are shorter.

[Schrecken]

I used to be a committed backseat rider, especially on woodies and non-looping steel coasters, but that was back in the days before I started having back problems. I loved the feel of being snapped over the top of the hill (as opposed to, on some coasters, the feel of just creeping over the top in the front seat) and the powerful forces often felt in the back seat. But now I won't dare ride any further than maybe the middle on a woodie, and on some no further than the 2nd seat, even though it may be a ride that I really love. I had a lapse of reasoning this summer and got about 3/4 the way back on Hoosier Hurricane at IB, and I paid for that mis-judgment with over a half hour of an aching neck and back and a mild headache. On El Toro I was able to just hang out in the middle of the train during an ERT session this fall, but I didn't trust getting any further back than that, even though El Toro is a very smooth-riding woodie. I also ride in non-wheel seats on all woodies to minimize roughness. Sadly my back seat riding on woodies is over forever unless perhaps medical science can figure on a way to adequately repair a deteriorating spine.

 

As for loopers and suspended coasters, I usually have always been more inclined to do the front (even before I had back problems) due to the view, especially on suspendeds. Also, head-banging has always been an issue on most coasters with OTSR's for me, and usually I find it to be less bad in the front. I used the single rider line this past summer on Maverick, and I had a slight panic when I was placed in a seat fairly close to the back, wondering if I would get my head bashed in back there. But it was actually a decent ride back there, and I was able to (having been forewarned many times) to avoid most of the head-banging. Same thing happened on Dominator (though I was with a friend who had to use the wheelchair entrance, and for that they will just place you wherever they can find available seats), we ended up near the back, but again it wasn't bad back there. So it's very rare that I do any backseat riding these days, unless it's certain steel coasters or smaller steel family coasters where the forces aren't that great to begin with.

[DougMJr]

Woodies - back

Sit down - back

Inverted - front

Launched coasters - front

 

There are exceptions, but this is my general rule.

[WFChris]

I used to be picky, but now I'm versatile.

 

I usually end up in the 2nd row because it has the shortest line (people see the HUGE crowd waiting for the front and generally walk the other direction...not noticing that row 2 is nearly empty!

[dominoes]

Front first time. Back the rest of the time. The only exception is on Colossus (Thorpe Park) where it is so bumpy at the back that I find it nicer to sit in the middle...

[alilstronger]

I love reading everyone's reasoning. A none enthusiast probably does not see it as technical as we can and do. Most people just see it as the front/back and people that are scared sit in the middle. We even think of things as technical as sitting on a none wheel versus a wheeled seat on a woodie - on a lot of them it can feel totally different.

[Hilltopper39]

For me it completely depends on the ride, manufacturer, time of day, a lot of different variables.

 

GCI's always seem better in the front, where as most woodies are generally better in the back.

 

Arrow Suspendeds are great in the back.

 

B&M inverts have great forces in the back but awful views, so I prefer the front.

 

B&M Flyers, back row all day.

[eddytheviper]

I usually end up in the 2nd row because it has the shortest line (people see the HUGE crowd waiting for the front and generally walk the other direction...not noticing that row 2 is nearly empty!

 

Too right, I love how the GP do that!

Also, being a single rider, if I'm lucky, there may be a space on the front so, I load go on last (let a group of 3 go before me) sit down but, delay pulling down my restraint, sometimes (Like on the Hulk) the Ops are fantastic and let me hop on the front.

 

Yes, it's cheeky, I do realise but, it's painful to see a space unfilled on the front row, right?

[Meteornotes]

It's pretty rare any more that I'll wait for a specific seat. Other than on the Phoenix.

 

dt

[Ridewatchers]

Calculation after calculation seems to show that the back seat on Goliath offers faster drops and more zero-g. Statistics also suggest that the back seat on YOLOCoaster gets more action on the scorpion tail and on the final drop. But data show that the front row of Riddler's Revenge and Batman let you anticipate the turns so you don't box your ears on the restraints. So the jury's still out.

[Fire2box]

I actually like the front these days more on wooden coasters and steels. Preferably front or back though, people in the middle are always boring. I do the middle on Vakoma's though since I feel like all of the ones I've been on are essentially death traps waiting to happen.

[StuckInSD]

Unless I wait for the front or back specifically, most of the time I get crammed in the middle. Now, this has produced some great experiences (like Manta in San Diego) and some incredibly bad ones (like Ghostrider). I'd choose the front over the back more often than not, mainly so I can see the ride unhindered by heads and that I'm deathly afraid of whiplash. But out of the three, I'd still choose the middle; I get the best luck with floater time.

[VF15]

I usually like riding in the back because you get more of the first drop and other drops, and if it's an airtime machine, the back usually has more/better airtime. Although, if it's a coaster that's notoriously rough, then I sit as far forward as possible since that helps a little.

[mike541x]

For the most part I usually go for the back but it all depends on the ride. Even though B&M's don't have the best views, I still prefer the back row considering they are very forceful and feels and doesn't have that lag of momentum I feel in the front row of rides like Montu and Great Bear. However on Alpengeist, I prefer the front as I actually find the front more intense (Probably because of the zero car). When it comes to woodies and hypers, I always ride in the back for the airtime. And as for launch coasters, it never really mattered to me.

[K1ngdaKa88]

It depends on the coaster. At the most coasters, especially airtime coasters, I prefer the middle because in the front and back I get sick but in the middle it is good! For example: at Expedition GeForce I rode it in the 4th car (middle) and I was well after the ride but when I rode it just in the 5th car I was feeling dizzy after the ride!

I prefer to sit in the first row but often I get dizzy or sick! So I ride it in the middle.

[rcjp]

It obviously depends on the coaster. There are rides, like kingda ka, which are obviously front seat rides. As to the others, well.... The front and the back have the most extreme forces with the back having the advantage of the first drop, drop of MCBRs,... and the front taking it for climbs into MCBRs, corkscrews (on B&M inverts, for instance, I prefer the feeling of being catapulted into the twist rather entering it at a moderate speed and being pulled out quickly),... If given the chance to choose I'll never take the middle (except maybe once to give it a try) so I'll go for the back or front. I generally prefer the front as (apart from first drops) the forces are similar and you get the view and also get to see all those nerdy things like track, chain, brakes, tires,....

However, as very often the front as long lines I probably end up riding the back a little more often (with the exception of rougher coasters where I tend to sit as far away from the back as possible).

[YoshiCraft2011]

Front seat. I'm able to see the track in front of me, which really enhances the ride experience. There might be no airtime, but airtime is not what I really enjoy. Of course, there are some coasters where front seat doesn't cut it. *cough* Boomerang *cough* Knott's *cough*

[BugEyed]

Launched coasters. Front. Otherwise, I like big butts and I can not lie.