2007 Mitch's Wooden Poll Results Are In

[ginzo]

If someone can rate a coaster lower because its "too rough" why cant they if its "too smooth"

 

It does come down to preference. But, keep in mind that roughness typically means something isn't right. No coaster vendor is going to tout roughness as a feature of their rides.

 

The beef that we're bringing up is the insanely low position that some people ranked El Toro. Putting El Toro below the Williams Grove Cyclone is just crap.

 

Night rides, El Toro was... eh at night, no big change in the feel of the ride. The Voyage was AMAZING, no lights during the whole ride except the lift and midcourse, it really felt out of control, more so than The Beast at night I thought.

 

At least you can ride El Toro at night on most operating days. That's completely not the case with Voyage. It's hard to get a Voyage night ride.

[splzero]

I will agree with you that the person who ranked El Toro that low was sandbaging it but some people also ranked voyage alot lower maybe not dead last but lower then what it should have.

[coaster05]

Haven't we pretty much beat this horse into a mound of glue. Unless they start giving out prize money to people whose favorite coaster is also number 1 on the list, then it really is not that big of deal.

[viking86]

-Thunderbird in the 10 spot. I don't doubt this, I just didn't realize it was so well liked. I knew it was a good ride, but I had never heard anybody give it a complete rave review.

 

I thought it was an amazing ride! Of course it doesnt have the strongest airtime, but its a very wild ride and the lateral G-forces in the second half are just sick! Theres not a single slow-moment on that ride.

 

European Coaster Club visited Powerpark this summer and heres some of their thoughts:

 

It is practically a perfect 'woodie'.

 

Highlight of the day was undoubtedly the ERS on Thunderbird, which was awesome and went like poop through a goose. My favourite GCI so far.

 

Thunderbird was tremendous -- no dead spots on the track and every seat provided a superb ride.

 

Until today, I've had seven number one coasters - Thunderbird makes it eight! This GCI woodie never, ever slows down. It really delivers non-stop action.

 

Thunderbird is a world class woodie, Balder, Phoenix and Voayage are getting top competition here.

 

Thunderbird was on fire - it has broken in so well over the past year.

 

All the comments can be read here http://www.coasterclub.org/trips/reports/2007/scandi/day2/

 

I guess that should answer some questions...

[Scaparri]

^Yeah, definitely. Thanks dude! As if I wasn't already excited about Evel Knievel, that gets me even more pumped given their near identical layouts.

[coasterdude28]

It really is incredibly how close the poll was this year. Everybody is saying that ET was 6 votes behind Voyage. Technically, it was only 3 behind. If 3 people that preferred Voyage had preferred ET instead, it would have been a dead even tie at 61 votes a piece. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

If the votes by people who rode both coasters this year shows any kind of future trend, ET should take over the number one spot eventually. I rode both coasters this year, and preferred Voyage by the slightest amount. They are both incredible coasters, and deserve the number one and two spots in this poll.

 

Thanks Mitch for running this great poll again. Keep up the good work.

[Sticky Nicky]

I can offically say that I have ridden the worst wooden coaster in the world/

[MitchHawker]

Here is a list of all the ballots that ranked El Toro against The Voyage in chronological order. The Voyage's rank is listed first then El Toro's, then which was ranked higher and then the number of ballots up to that point (note that this number is slightly different than the "ballot number").

 

While it may not look totally random, there may be innocent explanations such as friends and family voting at the same time.

 

Tie votes are listed here (six of them), not mentioned in the official results.

 

3	2	El Toro		Ballots so far = 9

3 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 10

2 9 Voyage Ballots so far = 15

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 23

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 30

1 7 Voyage Ballots so far = 31

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 33

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 39

1 1 Ballots so far = 46

2 58 Voyage Ballots so far = 54

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 55

1 7 Voyage Ballots so far = 65

1 18 Voyage Ballots so far = 66

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 67

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 77

10 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 86

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 89

6 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 92

10 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 99

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 111

8 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 114

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 115

9 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 118

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 125

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 134

9 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 146

1 4 Voyage Ballots so far = 150

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 153

3 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 166

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 168

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 171

1 6 Voyage Ballots so far = 173

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 188

3 5 Voyage Ballots so far = 190

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 194

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 217

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 218

5 5 Ballots so far = 226

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 231

4 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 233

9 4 El Toro Ballots so far = 240

2 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 252

4 10 Voyage Ballots so far = 261

16 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 266

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 269

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 271

2 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 274

25 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 275

2 4 Voyage Ballots so far = 276

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 279

6 6 Ballots so far = 284

1 6 Voyage Ballots so far = 285

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 295

1 4 Voyage Ballots so far = 297

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 305

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 307

2 4 Voyage Ballots so far = 310

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 326

30 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 335

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 345

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 346

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 351

1 10 Voyage Ballots so far = 352

6 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 360

3 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 361

2 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 366

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 370

16 6 El Toro Ballots so far = 372

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 376

22 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 382

28 27 El Toro Ballots so far = 384

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 392

134 13 El Toro Ballots so far = 404

5 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 412

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 416

1 4 Voyage Ballots so far = 430

1 1 Ballots so far = 442

1 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 443

4 3 El Toro Ballots so far = 454

2 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 460

13 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 475

1 9 Voyage Ballots so far = 478

5 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 480

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 484

6 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 546

26 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 548

3 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 560

3 4 Voyage Ballots so far = 565

1 6 Voyage Ballots so far = 568

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 569

9 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 582

13 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 584

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 611

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 618

1 11 Voyage Ballots so far = 621

4 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 635

1 4 Voyage Ballots so far = 641

40 30 El Toro Ballots so far = 642

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 666

1 2 Voyage Ballots so far = 667

1 1 Ballots so far = 675

1 29 Voyage Ballots so far = 678

7 24 Voyage Ballots so far = 681

3 10 Voyage Ballots so far = 689

1 26 Voyage Ballots so far = 692

1 21 Voyage Ballots so far = 694

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 695

4 3 El Toro Ballots so far = 699

1 14 Voyage Ballots so far = 701

13 8 El Toro Ballots so far = 704

1 5 Voyage Ballots so far = 705

2 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 710

2 3 Voyage Ballots so far = 717

25 55 Voyage Ballots so far = 719

78 53 El Toro Ballots so far = 720

3 6 Voyage Ballots so far = 721

25 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 723

1 107 Voyage Ballots so far = 725

25 1 El Toro Ballots so far = 729

1 10 Voyage Ballots so far = 734

1 10 Voyage Ballots so far = 735

6 2 El Toro Ballots so far = 740

1 4 Voyage Ballots so far = 746

1 1 Ballots so far = 749

15 7 El Toro Ballots so far = 751

30 29 El Toro Ballots so far = 760

9 37 Voyage Ballots so far = 761

1 17 Voyage Ballots so far = 764

[MitchHawker]

One thing that caught my eye is that Troy was on 100 ballots.

 

Balder has been there for 5 years and is not on 100 ballots.

 

Tremors (admittedly off the beaten path) nine years and only 52 ballots.

 

Were there some large gatherings of enthusiasts at Toverland this year?

[ginzo]

^TPR's Mini Europe Trip went through Toverland this year, but TPR also went through Liseberg last year on the UK Trip add-on. And it's a lot of the same folks.

[hyyyper]

A lot of coaster club made a little detour to catch and ride Troy on their Eurotrips, dunno which, but i've seen alot of groups in Toverland last summer

[Absimilliard]

I also did a bit of promotion of french coaster boards and it seems like a vast majority of those fans went to Toverland, loved Troy, then voted and ranked it their number one. Could that also explain it? Those were people that didn't vote before.

[b&mforever]

One question. Do you check the ballots for things like rate bombing and invalid votes. I saw a couple weird ballots that looked like they should have been voided.

[texcoaster]

I know of one person that I talked to while riding Bullet who complained that ET was "too damn smooth for a wood coaster" and that she liked the airtime, but was disappointed in the ride overall.

 

I call Bullsh!t. The poll is not to determine which wood coaster feels the most like an old fashioned coaster. The poll is to determine the best wood coaster. Wood coasters are defined by the tracks they roll on.

 

Why is this BS? For each individual voter, the "BEST" wood coaster is the one that he or she LIKED THE MOST. Period. If a person likes a wood coaster to feel like an old-fashioned wood coaster as opposed to a smooth steelie feel, then for that person their ranking of the "BEST" coaster is totally valid.

 

Does this same person who complains it is too smooth, vote B&Ms at the bottom of the Steel Poll because B&Ms are too smooth?

 

No. She said that she likes steelies to be smooth, and in fact dislikes Vekomas and rides with OTSRs because of the roughness. I must say that I agree with her on that one. I expect a little rough-n-tumble on a wood coaster, but I like smoothness in a steelie. To each his own.

 

To call someone's vote BS because their idea of what makes a good wood coaster is different than yours, that's pretty pathetic. Shame on you.

[MitchHawker]

One question. Do you check the ballots for things like rate bombing and invalid votes. I saw a couple weird ballots that looked like they should have been voided.

 

Rate bombing? Invalid votes? Examples please.

[yankees15]

I am very pleased with the results. I believe The Voyage and El Toro deserve the top 2 spots no matter which one comes in first. As for next years poll I am very interested to see were T Express will place. I suppose I will have to wait a year.

[coasterdude28]

^That's exactly how I feel.

 

Also, just a little side note, TPR was the number one referrer to Mitchs' site for this poll. Good job Robb and Elissa for getting so many people to vote.

[Absimilliard]

Some people on other websites don't seem to appreciate that TPR is allowing more people to try oversea rides. Even if T Express somehow comes in at number 1 next year, they'll discount it as "only 20 people rode it" and "if TPR said its the best, they'll vote for it, just cause of that!". I feel they haven't gotten over both Pyrenees and Balder placing very high after TPR trips...

[exit english]

Yeah, there's already some chatter going on about "TPR members and their influence on the ballot".

 

Why is there so much drama in the world of liking roller coasters?

[PURE]

^I've kinda always wondered that myself.

 

I think the number 1 and 2 spots are right where they belong. Typically the more intense rides get knocked down to number two, or so seems the trend.

 

Like Robb said 5 pages earlier, do these numbers effect the rides I like? No.

[ginzo]

Some people on other websites don't seem to appreciate that TPR is allowing more people to try oversea rides. Even if T Express somehow comes in at number 1 next year, they'll discount it as "only 20 people rode it" and "if TPR said its the best, they'll vote for it, just cause of that!". I feel they haven't gotten over both Pyrenees and Balder placing very high after TPR trips...

 

That's really funny. How is it bad that more people are getting to do international park trips? That's just leads to more data for the poll. And it's not like TPR is the only outfit offering international group trips.

 

Balder debuted at #1 in 2003, and then took #1 again in 2005. TPR's first public trip took place in 2006. TPR must be pretty darn influential to have influenced the poll in years before they even offered trips to the public.

[alpengeist04]

Some people need to realize that not all the best coasters are in the US. As much as I would like that time and money wise, it just isn't the case.

[Jim S.]

Troy comes in 4th? Wow, i really did not see that coming. I've been on Troy, and if i see the amazing Wildcat (hershey) layout i'm a bit curious how it ended up there.

 

Some people thought Wildcat was too rough with the old trains. The new trains have only been there for one year. They're smoother, but I think the smoothness makes it feel too slow. RCDB has it listed as 50mph. With the old trains, it was MUCH more intense than the other local wooden twister, Twister at Knoebels, which is only 1.5mph faster and doesn't have curving drops.

[larrygator]

One thing that caught my eye is that Troy was on 100 ballots.

 

Balder has been there for 5 years and is not on 100 ballots.

 

 

Mitch - A look at the votes by country helps explain this, also. 8 voters from the combined Sweden/Norway/Finland area.

[Wes]

Why is there so much drama in the world of liking roller coasters?

 

This is why I hate the hardcore enthusiasts. Seriously, if you are creating DRAMA about a roller coaster poll, you need to step back and reevaluate your life. Your favorite coaster being #1 or #212 doesn't matter, because IT'S YOUR FAVORITE COASTER.

 

Sometimes I think people forget this hobby is supposed to be about having fun.