Ranking Coasters You've Had Mixed Experiences On

[Electerik]

Since we’ve just finished up Mitch’s poll for the year (and all the debate which follows it), I find myself wondering how other people rate coasters that they’ve had varying experiences on. Which is to say, do you rank a coaster based on the best ride you’ve ever had on it? On your most recent ride? On some kind of average?

 

For example, when it first opened, I had literally hundreds of consistently amazing rides on GhostRider. When I moved from California, it was still unquestionably my favorite wooden coaster. Going back a few years later, it was very much less good on the two rides I got on it. So, hundreds of great rides several years back, versus two ho-hum rides a few years later tells me the coaster has slipped. (And I’ve heard from multiple sources that it’s slipped even farther since.) And yet, on average, my rides on GhostRider have been very, very good. In my memory, it’s still the best wooden coaster I’ve ever ridden--yet the idea of declaring it to still be my favorite at the moment seems questionable, at best.

 

The first time I rode Raven, it shot to number two on my list. A few years later, I had dull and uninteresting rides on it. On that same trip, I rode Cornball Express, and declared it my new number two. I’ve recently gone back to Holiday World and found Raven to be great again, but I didn’t make it back to Indiana Beach. So how to compare Raven (which I’ve had mixed rides on over three different occasions) to Cornball (which I’ve only experienced on one occasion)?

 

Obviously, these are personal decisions. And I’m not asking for someone to make them for me. But I am curious to know if anyone else wrestles with this kind of thing.

 

Thoughts?

[kidcoaster 2]

I rank mine as an Average. The Blue Streak at Conneaut is mine not because Conneaut is like my second home but just because I have never had a bad ride on it. It is always fun and I never rode a coaster yet that can knock it down a rank.

 

Some coasters are hard to rank just because the experience is sometimes weird. As in one part of the ride it is smooth the other half its rough. Mean Streak as CP is my hardest to rank because each time I ride it I get a different experience. Hopefully CP will do something so it can move up in my ranks.

[larrygator]

There is no right or wrong answer.

 

I go semi-Olympic style. I use an average but throw out great rides that were casued by temporary conditions.

 

For instance, some of the single greatest rides I have had are on Voyage at night (Holliwood Nights) and Balder in the morning for 3 hours of TPR ERT.

 

Voyage would be my number one if I solely based my ranking on those night rides, but that is a special instance. I liked my daytime rides and still rank it highly, just not #1.

Balder was incredible during ERT, yet rides later in the day (with a 30-40 minute wait) were just as incredible.

 

Now with Boulder Dash, I've been on it dozens of times and I notice a considerable difference in the way the coaster runs throughout the day (and I know some experts who completely disagree with me on this).

Late in the day it is a Top 5 coaster for me, but it is not nearly as good earlier in the day. Therefore in my rankings it sits below all the other wood coasters that I think give a strong consistent ride any time of day.

 

I'd like to think that my rankings are credible. If I tell someone that this is the #1 coaster it should be an experience that the average Joe can experience on a average day at any time.

[Electerik]

I'd like to think that my rankings are credible. If I tell someone that this is the #1 coaster it should be an experience that the average Joe can experience on a average day at any time.

 

That makes sense. And yet, what if you've only ridden a particular ride under great conditions? Do you let others peoples' opinions that it's normally not that good sway you?

 

I admit that I do tend to base my rankings on my most recent rides. But that makes it hard to compare coasters that I haven't been on lately.

 

Anyway, I really don't have a point--except that I think they're interesting questions.

[scooterdoug]

Interesting question to ask. I have pondered the same thing as well. Personally, I like to give rides the benefit of the doubt. I tend to judge rides based on the best ride they have given me. To me, that's the height of it's potential. It might not reach that admirable high every time (or even some of the time), but that is still the greatness that it is capable of.

 

Take Aikido, my beloved martial art, as an example. I have seen people who demonstrate moderate to good Aikido during daily classes. However, when they test, and they have all eyes on them and the pressure and stress that accompanies testing, they perform excellent Aikido that is strikingly superior to their typical Aikido. To me, that is a person's true Aikido: how they perform under stress (which, I believe, is more representative of how one would perform if in a genuine confrontation).

 

So, that's how I judge roller coasters. Like an Aikidoist's test performance, a shining day for a roller coaster shows me what that ride is truly capable of...the best it can be. So, in that case, Psyclone was one of the best woodies I've been on. So, it's dismal and lamentable decline was , to me, more due to maintenance neglect than general ride suckiness. At least, that's how I see it.

 

-Doug

[niiicolaaah]

My overall ranking is based on my most recent ride experience. For example, I rode Wildcat at Hershey Park several times in 2007 and several times in 2008. I found it to be generally rougher in 2008, so on my Mitch Hawker poll for this year, I bumped it down a couple of spots. If I ride it again in 2009 and it's running better, I may put it back higher.

 

As for letting other people's opinion sway my rankings, I certainly do not. For instance, I heard many people bash Ghostrider before I rode it, but I thought it wasn't that bad. Also, people told me how painful X2 is, but I liked it. However, I only got to ride it once, so if I were to ride it more times in different seats I would probably rank it lower. But i can only rank based on my particular experience.

[Speeddeamon128]

My top 10 list rarely changes. Millennium Force has always been my #1 steel but overall Boulderdash is now #1. I separate the woodies from the steel & only my woodies keep bouncing around because I'm more of a woodie fan than a steel fan. Phoenix used to be #1 now it is #3. Then it was El Toro for #1 & now that is #2. My steel coasters aren't going to change unless I ride something incredible. Only Behemoth snuck its way into my top now ranked #2. In 07 Maverick kicked Nitro out of #5. My top 10 list changes sometimes but it depends on how good the coaster is & how many times I ride a particular ride.

[mightypotato]

I tend to go off my last ride experience. For example, Apollo's Chariot used to be lower down on my list until 2007 when I rode it again for the first time in years. The ride it gave me then blew me away and propelled up my list.

 

The only downside is if I've only been on a ride once and had either a great or horrible experience, that's where I place it on my list. Mean Streak is a good example of that. The first time I rode it in 2003, I had a great ride and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, naturally it took up a high spot on my very small list of woodies. But...riding it again this year dropped it to just above Wild Beast and Predator...but only barely.

[rcdude]

If I have only been on a ride once or twice, I will usually give it the benefit of the doubt if I had a poor ride and rank it higher than I would if I rode it many times. I will also assume that it can give worse rides if I had a particularly good ride on it.

 

For rides that I have been on many times, I usually base it off of what a typical ride is. For example, I have been on Silver Bullet many times. Usually it gives a pretty good ride. But I have had a couple rides on it that weren't so great. Since it usually gives a good ride, I will tend to not be influenced by the worse rides. However, if I started having a bad ride every single time I rode it my rating of it would change.

 

In general, other people's opinions do not influence my rating of a ride. They do, however, help me prioritize rides I have never been on.

[larrygator]

That makes sense. And yet, what if you've only ridden a particular ride under great conditions? Do you let others peoples' opinions that it's normally not that good sway you?

 

I've never had such a situation. I always try to ride wooden coasters more than once in a day. If I go somewhere for an event I always try to ride a coaster before the event, just in case mechanical problems occur.

 

It would have been very easy to not return to Balder after 3 hours of ERT, but I just had to go back later in the day and sample it in typical conditions.

[downunder]

Good topic, I have had some strikingly different rides on the same coaster, sometimes on the same day and other coasters have improved or gotten worse over the years.

 

I've tended to base my ranking on my best ride, but in some cases where I think the coaster has gone to hell over a period of time I rank it on how they are the last time I rode them. Ghostrider is a classic example, I have had some great rides on Ghostrider but my last rides were so awful I couldn't wait for the ride to be over.

 

Some examples of coasters that were radically different at differnet times of the day:

 

Ravine Flyer II - I had a ride during the day and was disappointed, then the at night ERT it was absolutely amazing.

 

Vortex (Canada's one) - so average during the day, that I wasn't going to bother riding it during night ERT, I'm glad Behemoth ERT was delayed because this was crazy at night.

 

Hades - I had a brilliant back row ride at night, but morning ERT was average.

 

And so on: I've also had variable rides on Superman at SFNE and El Toro.

 

I missed riding Voyage at night, and that certainly influenced my ranking because the day rides I had put it well behind many other woodies I have ridden.

[CreditCrazy]

I've had a lot of mixed experiences on coasters, and I think I do some kind of average between the two, but it really depends on the coaster.

 

Like Scream @ SFMM. The first couple times I rode it it was great, and very fun. The last couple times I've ridden it, it's been horrible. Too fast, dizzying, rough, uncomfortable...ugh. Scream was my #7 coaster (I think) for a while, but now it's slipped down to about #11.

 

And Batman: The Ride @ SFMM. I had an amazing first ride on it, and ranked it better than Silver Bullet. After a bad ride, it is now down to about #13, and Silver Bullet is at #7.

 

So those are basically two rides, where bad rides on them ruined their rank. Here's the opposite:

 

Tatsu @ SFMM. I'd ridden this two times and they were both #1, A+++++, exrreme, and amazing. I rode it my 3rd time, and got a dizzying, unenjoyable ride that day. But that doesn't ruin it's rank. It's still @ #1 where it's been since I rode it. The same thing has happened with several other rides ranked high on my list.

 

So I think it depends on how bad my ride was, or how I was feeling that day, how the coaster was running, how many good/bad rides I've gotten on it etc.

[downunder]

One other facor I forgot to mention is where on the train you ride the coaster, I've had some very different rides on different rows, and possibly different trains if I had been taking notice.

 

My Beast rides have been horrible but I hear it is much better on a non wheel seat, which I didn't do. Also Cornball Express was 10 times better in the back than anywhere else. Kingda Ka, beyond the first couple of rows was terrible, shakier than Robert Downey Jr in a dry county.

[DBru]

While I take many things into consideration when ranking a coaster, I primarily base mine on my latest rides.

 

For example, the first time I rode the Raven at Holiday World, I found it to be incredibly rough and sluggish. It was very low on my list, but after the park did tons of work on it, the ride is now smooth, fast, and air-filled! It's now one of my top-ten woodies.

 

On the other hand, the first time I rode the Racer at Kings Island, it was FULL of airtime, and just an amazing ride. But lately, the ride has been running slower, rougher, and the air just isn't that great. It has lowered way down on my list.

 

While I can see why people would base rankings on their *best* ride, it just can't be currently accurate. Take the Beast; back in the early '80s, I'm sure it was an amazing ride, because there was simply nothing better to compare it to. But now, there are many more world-class woodies with greater speeds, smoother transitions, more intensity, and tons of airtime that the classic Beast just can't measure up to. Yet, when ranking coasters, people seem to look at what the Beast *was*, rather than what it is now. When it was in its heyday, the coaster got enough glory. Now it is time to give up its spot for coasters that deserve that glory. (Of course, this is just m opinion/an example, you may still think the Beast is amazing. )

[Electerik]

One other facor I forgot to mention is where on the train you ride the coaster, I've had some very different rides on different rows, and possibly different trains if I had been taking notice.

 

I've been on quite a few wooden coasters that I thought were pretty good in the front seat, but terrible in the back: Hurler, Predator, Texas Giant (hmmm, all Summers/Dinn).

 

I have a hard time tracking differences in trains unless I'm really riding a particular coaster a lot. I've mostly noticed it on coasters I've worked on (where I'm both riding a lot and actually paying attention to which train is which).

 

Even weather can make a difference on bigger rides. I opened Millennium Force, and quickly found that it had almost no airtime (after the first drop) on windy days, but really good sustained floater air on calm days.

[downunder]

^Millennium Force is a good example of a coaster where the experience has changed for me over the years, in 2003 it was mind blowing but by 2007 it was crawling over those airtime hills.

 

And boy does a strong headwind slow down Magnum on the bunny hill run but not enough to not totally neuter a first time rider friend who I recommended the ejector seat too.

[Airtime&Gravity]

I rank coasters that I've had mixed experiences on by averaging ride experiences, but with a slight emphasis on recent rides. A coaster won't automatically change position on my list of favorites after one ride, but if over the course of consecutive visits, the ride experience is the same, the list will change.

 

This happened with Raging Bull over the 2008 season. Before 2008, Viper was easily my favorite coaster in the park, but Raging Bull ran excellent during the year with the trims off. By the end of the season (10+ visits), Raging Bull had improved enough to become my favorite coaster in the park. However, it only has a slight lead over Viper as my favorite coaster in the park.

 

The only instance where this didn't apply would be T2. I loved it in 2006, but I hated it in 2008. What I assumed with this was that I got lucky in 2006.

[DBru]

^You must have been VERY lucky...no one loves T2.

[Philrad71]

In 07 Maverick kicked Nitro out of #5.

 

I was amazed at Maverick in '07, but was a little disappointed in it during Halloweekends in '08. It seems to be getting rougher and the headbanging against the restraints is worsening during the tight transitions.

 

Don't get me wrong - I still like the coaster...but I was a little disappointed in it when I rode it three times last October. I tried switching from front seat, middle seat, and back seat with head fully back against the head-rest, head poking ahead...you name it, I tried it and still had the same ear-boxing experience. My sister would not even ride it again after the first time due to getting her head slammed around in the back seat...and she followed the proper rider guidelines of "head back and hold on to the handle grips."

 

My dream would be getting rid of the OTSR's on this ride. I am concerned that this ride could get quite painful as it continues to mature and will drop down people's favorite steel coaster list.

 

Anyone else notice this in '08??

[Medusa1861]

I use i guess mostly unconsciously, a method of forecasting to rank. The last 2-3 days i've been to the park and ridden the ride, would predict where, if i were to ride it again how I would rank it. So, using numbers and say using Millennium Force as an example, out of a 1-10 scale I'd rate my rides for that day as 10, 8 and 8. So the average of those last days were 8.6. So I use that method to predict that the next time I ride it, I will probably think it's worth about an 8.6 rating. However circumstances like El Toro. I completely ignore my rides before the major change that no one seems to care about. The slowed lift. I absolutely hate it, most likely because I remember the "good old days" and that's how it barely reached my top 10 woodies. I know it's completely unfair how to rank rides that go under an undesirable change, but I'm human and I hold grudges. It's hard for me to ride El Toro and not get frustrated at the top how slow we're moving, and how this hill used to have more airtime, etc.

[televisedconfession]

I think it's sad sometimes how critical some enthusiasts are with their rankings. I like to think of myself a little more light-hearted, and look primarily at the overall enjoyness factor.

 

I think a major factor that gets played into my ranking of coasters is the experience I had on that particular ride. For example, When I was on the Behemoth/Ravine Flyer II trip, when we went to Waldameer to ride Ravine Flyer II, I was very much impressed with the ride itself. When we got ERT on the ride later that night, it started to rain (and lightning), and they kept the trains running for us (which was awesomely nice of them) which made the coaster even better. Not only did it run faster, but everyone was just in good spirits and the energy that filled that station at the end was FANOMINAL! Had I gone on it just in the day, on my own, I don't know if it would rank as high on my overall list.

Another example, is I got my first kiss with an old flame on the chain life on Gwazi, and that coaster will forever hold a special place in my heart. I feel like I'm one of the few people who still love the ride.

 

I think another factor for me, is that I don't ALWAYS rate rides on their roughness. If a ride is rough, but has a FANTASTIC layout, I wont let the roughness become a factor. I don't mind a spine-altering experience if the ride is mind-blowing. Also, if the theming is amazing, I don't care how weak the ride is, I'll bump that up on my rankings.

 

To sum up, I usually take the best ride I've had on a coaster, consider how it's being kept up, look at the layout/theme, and adjust accordingly. Rides that fall apart after opening season (cough*six flags*cough) normally get bumped down, just for depression factor.