Mitch Hawker's Coaster Poll 2009!

[Medusa1861]

I'm very thankful for the coasterfanatics way of doing it. I tried doing it the old fashioned way, I got up to about #40 then realized I missed Raptor, and really didn't feel like finding and changing every coaster to a different number. For some reason I don't like the other scale of just labeling many coasters as the same number.

 

I probably did the poll wrong. I just go by how I interpret it. I noticed some people not including rides that got an "x2 make-over" I count it, just because there is a section stating it that i haven't ridden it this year. I also counted Dominator and Voodoo because i have ridden those at Six Flags Ohio. I figure that if I'm not going to count it again if I ride them at the new parks, why count it separately for this poll?

 

My top as far as I can remember

#1 Best wooden (Boulder Dash)

#2 Goliath La Ronde

#3 Volcano

#4 Storm Runner

#5 SROS (SFNE)

#6 Fahrenheit

#7 Millennium Force

#8 Spongebob's Rock Bottom Plunge

#9 Afterburn

#10 Mystery Mine

#11 Alpengeist

 

Bottom:

worst Favorite Flitzer, Zamperla Volare, The only two that I absolutely hate.

[Moose]

^ You can just insert a coaster with a decimal point. For example if Raptor fell between your number 9 and 10 coasters, you could give it a rating of 9.5 and it would calculate your list correctly.

[Medusa1861]

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind next year.

[Ryancrash]

Just sent in my first ever Steel Poll Ballot. That sure took some doing, but it wasn't half as bad as I'd expected. (I'd thought I was gonna have to try to rank every kiddie coaster I'd ever ridden, every Boomerang, etc.) The SLCs are lucky they're all grouped together under the banner of my "Favorite Vekoma SLC" - otherwise there would be a LOT of SLCs at the very bottom of my list!

 

(How do we get Toshimaen's Cyclone added to the ballot? The one with the trains that look like logs? Not that it's a top ten coaster or anything, but it's good enough that it deserves to be on the list...)

 

TOP 20 STEEL:

1. Expedition GeForce

2. Diamondback

3. Behemoth

4. SROS (aka Bizarro) (SFNE)

(Favorite Woodie - Balder)

5. Steel Dragon 2000

6. Nitro

7. Goliath (La Ronde)

8. Goliath (Walibi World)

9. Piraten

10. Phantom's Revenge

11. Steel Force

12. Apollo's Chariot

13. Thunder Dolphin

14. Ride Of Steel (Darien Lake)

15. Goliath (SFOG)

16. Wild Thing (Valleyfair)

17. Alpengeist

18. Tornado (Särkänniemi)

19. Speed Monster

20. Millennium Force

 

And the bottom of the list:

 

223. Superman: Ultimate Flight (SFOG)

224. Ninja (SFSL)

225. Pirate's Hideaway

226. Space Mountain: Mission 2 (Disneyland Paris)

227. Great American Scream Machine (SF Great Adventure)

228. Gouderix

229. Favorite Zyklon Loop

230. Ninja (SFOG)

231. Favorite Zamperla Volare

232. Roller Soaker

[downunder]

^I had Roller Soaker last as well, I rode it once that was enough - the things we do for a credit.

 

Got mine in, my top 25:

 

1. Favorite Wood Coaster Any Park (Balder)

2. Piraten Djurs Sommerland

3. Bizarro SF New England

4. X2 Six Flags Magic Mo

5. Maverick Cedar Point

6. Top Thrill Dragster Cedar Point

7. Behemoth Canadas Wonderland

8. Millennium Force Cedar Point

9. Goliath Six Flags Over Geo

10. Ride of Steel Darien Lake NY,y,n,10

11. Phantom's Revenge Kennywood Park

12. Nitro Six Flags Great Ad

13. Mindbender Six Flags Over Geo

14. Vortex Canadas Wonderland

15. Magnum XL-200 Cedar Point

16. Lynet Farup Sommerland

17. Afterburn Carowinds

18. Storm Runner Hersheypark

19. Kingda Ka Six Flags Great Ad

20. Fluch von Novgorod Hansa-Park

21. Flight of Fear Kings Island

22. Flight of Fear Kings Dominion

23. Raptor Cedar Point

24. XCelerator Knott's Berry Farm

25. Alpengeist Busch Gardens Euro

[robbalvey]

Submitted my Steel Poll tonight. This one is always a little bit harder mainly because there is just so much "fluff" in the middle.

 

Here's my "Top 25" which really ended up being more like my Top 30 because of some rides that were tied:

 

1 Favorite Wood Coaster

1 Expedition GeForce

2 Goliath (Walibi World)

3 Bizarro (SFNE)

4 Fly Over Mediterranea

4 Mega-Lite

4 Piraten

4 Kawasemi

5 Kumba

6 Nemesis

7 Eagle's Fortress

8 Winjas

9 SheiKra

10 Mindbender (WEM)

11 Dragon Khan

12 Pyrenees

13 Dueling Dragons-Fire

13 Dueling Dragons-Ice

14 Euro-Mir

15 Montu

16 Tele2 Insane

17 Dive Coaster

17 Dive Machine

18 Ride of Steel

19 Atlantis Adventure

20 Shockwave (SFOT)

21 Tornado (Bakken)

22 Storm Runner

23 Furius Baco

24 Hollywood Rip Ride Ro

25 Revenge of the Mummy

 

And of course the bottom 10:

 

50 Screamin Squirrel

50 Sequoia Adventure

51 Space Mountain

52 G Force

53 Cobra

54 Eejanaika

55 Dodonpa

56 Spinning Batman

57 Iron Wolf

59 Manhattan Express

60 Goudurix

[raptor6]

I sense a slight theme with your top coasters, Robb!

[ConleyKE]

Haven't been on much, but here we go:

 

Wood

1-El Toro

2-The Voyage

3-Thunderhead

4-The Beast

5-Raven

6-Kentucky Rumbler

7-Viper

8-The Legend

9-The Boss

10-Screamin' Eagle

 

Steel

1-Diamondback

2-Millennium Force

3-Nitro

4-Raging Bull

5-Raptor

6-Wicked Twister

7-Batman The Ride Clones

8-Magnum XL-200

9-Top Thrill Dragster

10-Mr. Freeze

[supermanrosfan0810]

Steel top 10:

 

(Favorite wood, El Toro)

1- Bizarro @ SFNE

2- Behemoth

3- Nitro

4- Maverick

5- Top Thrill Dragster

6- Storm Runner

7- Kumba

8- Montu

9- Wicked Twister

10- Gemini

[Wes]

1. Bizarro

1. Favorite Wood Coaster (Voyage)

2. Kawasemi

3. Dueling Dragons-Fire

4. Batman The Ride

5. Millennium Force

6. Maverick

7. SheiKra

8. Superman:Krypton Cstr

9. Top Thrill Dragster

10. XCelerator

11. Revenge of the Mummy

12. Phantom's Revenge

13. Steel Eel

14. Thunder Dolphin

15. Poltergeist

 

--

 

106. Iron Wolf

107. Santa Monica West Coaster

108. Deja Vu

109. Fav Arrow Shuttle

110. Manhattan Express

[XII]

My Steel Top 25

 

1. Maverick

2. X2

3. Favorite Wooden Coaster (Coaster @ PNE Playland.)

4. Kumba

5. Phantoms Revenge

6. Dueling Dragons Fire

6. Dueling Dragons Ice

7. Montu

8. Behemoth

9. Incredible Hulk Coaster

10. Sheikra

11. Storm Runner

12. Tatsu

13. Xcelerator

14. Magnum XL 200

15. Raptor

16. Dominator

17. Riddlers Revenge

18. Batman the Ride

19. Millennium Force

20. Top Gun @ CGA

21. Top Thrill Dragster

22. DejaVu

23. Raging Bull

24. Medusa

25. Goliath (La Ronde.)

[ginzo]

16 Tele2 Insane

 

Yay for another vote for Insane! That's my highest ranked steel coaster. I rode it for the entire ERT and it never stopped scaring me. Getting to the top of that basically vertical lift and not knowing what's coming next is really disorienting and cool.

[cfc]

^Insane will probably rank pretty high for me, too--and I didn't expect to like it at all when I first heard about this ride.

[SharkTums]

My goal is to get both of my polls done today. Insane will rank very highly on mine as well.

[robinschroder]

Just completed my steel poll ballot - here's my top 15:

 

1. Favourite Wood Coaster (Balder!)

2. Expedition GeForce

3. Silver Star (I guess I caught it on a good day...?)

4. Blue Fire Megacoaster

5. Speed Monster

6. Millennium Force

7. Top Thrill Dragster

8. XCelerator

9. Wicked Twister

10. Nemesis

11. Lisebergbanan

12. Lynet

13. Winjas

14. Piraten

15. X2

 

I sent in my wood poll ballot a little while ago. As it's so sparse, here's the complete list:

 

1. Balder

2. My Favourite Steel (EGF!)

3. Colossos (Heide Park)

4. Thundercoaster

5. Troy

6. Colossus (SFMM)

175. Mean Streak (ow, my back!)

 

Robin

[Divv3k]

Mine have both been submitted!

 

WOOD:

1 Balder

2 El Toro

3 My Favorite Steel

4 The Voyage

5 Kentucky Rumbler

6 Troy

7 Colossos

8 Avalanche

9 Thunderbird

10 Falken

 

And the bottom...

58 Cyclone (SFNE)

59 Stampida

60 Anaconda

61 The Bandit (Movie Park)

62 Son of Beast (SBNO)

 

---

 

STEEL:

1 Favorite Wood Coaster

2 Expedition GeForce

3 Nemesis

4 Piraten

5 Montu

6 Dueling Dragons-Ice

7 Goliath (Walibi World)

8 Kumba

9 Phantom's Revenge

10 Apollo's Chariot

 

And the bottom...

136 Goudurix

137 Vortex (KI)

138 Space Mountain (DLP)

139 Tornado (Bakken)

140 Tornado (M&Ds)

 

I'm looking forward to seeing this year's results!

[SharkTums]

^I can't believe you put Tornado at Bakken so low! You must have been part of the few that got their ass kicked on it! It was so amazing!!!!

[larrygator]

^If I remember correctly, Divv was one of the people (like myslef) who was attacked by the restraints. It's hard to believe you called a spinning coaster amazing.

[SharkTums]

^Remember on my ride it didn't spin that much and I didn't get killed by the restraint! It just went balls out fast and was a ton of fun!

[Divv3k]

Yeah, my neck got mauled by the restraints and I was in a bit of pain after the ride. Which is a shame as the general consensus was that it was great! So I guess I was in that unfortunate minority and I can only rank it based on my experience, which wasn't good.

 

I like to see Intamin rides get championed as much as possible so I'm pleased most people liked it. I definitely wouldn't be averse to giving a similar ride a go in the future!

[cfc]

^Remember on my ride it didn't spin that much and I didn't get killed by the restraint! It just went balls out fast and was a ton of fun!

 

Same here--very little spinning, yet absolute insanity!

[larrygator]

I painstakingly went through and numbered all that I have ridden individually.

 

My Top 20

 

Favorite Wood Coaster (Phoenix) 1

Bizarro SFNE 2

Tele2 Insane Grona Lund 3

Nemesis Alton Towers 4

Nitro SFGAdv 5

Expedition GeForce Holiday Park 6

Millennium Force Cedar Point 7

Afterburn Carowinds 8

Magnum XL-200 Cedar Point 9

HeiBe Fahrt Freizeitp Klotten 10

Fav X SC2000/3000 (Dragons Fury) 11

Winjas Phantasialand 12

Behemoth Canadas Wond 13

Apollo's Chariot BGE 14

Goliath Walibi World 15

Speed Monster Tusenfryd 16

Top Thrill Dragster Cedar Point 17

Piraten Djurs Sommerland 18

Ride of Steel Darien Lake 19

Superman - Ride of St SFA 20

 

My Bottom 10

 

Great American Scream SFGAdv 249

Fav Chance Toboggan 250

SkyRider Canadas Wonderland 251

Le Cobra La Ronde 252

G Force Drayton Manor 253

Fav Zamperla Volare 254

Space Mountain Disneyland Paris 255

Shockwave Kings Dominion 256

Goudurix Parc Asterix 257

X:\No Way Out Thorpe Park 258

[robbalvey]

I also have Tornado in my top 25. The restraints never touched me once and I probably rode it 6 or 7 times with various different weight distributions and I was unable to hold on because I was having to hold the camera equipment!

 

I can see where some people could get whacked by them and it would affect your rankings, but 2nd worst coaster of all time? Behind Space Mountain *AND* Gouderix?!?!? C'mon!

 

Especially for a ride where "the general consensus was that it was great" you'd think someone would give it a *little* more benefit of the doubt.

 

For example, I ranked Piraten equal to all the other Mega-Lite's I've been on, because, even though our specific rides *THAT DAY* *THAT HOUR* *THAT MOMENT* didn't quite match up to the other three. I know that the ride has the potiential to deliver based on what I know the ride can do and what others have said, so I'll give it the nod. Not to mention that even running a bit slower it was still a kick ass ride that day!

 

If the "the general consensus" was that the ride usually under performs the others, I'd consider ranking it lower, but when everyone else who had been on it prior, and even the park owner told us "it's running a bit slow right now" I take that into consideration.

 

--Robb "Just surprised you ranked it THAT low!" Alvey

[SharkTums]

Here's my Wood and Steel Top and Bottom!

 

 

1 El Toro SFGAd

2 Balder Liseberg

3 My Favorite Steel Anypark Anywhere

3 T Express Everland

4 Phoenix Knoebel's

5 Colossos Heide Park

6 Grand National Blackpool

7 Boulder Dash Lake Compounce

8 Cyclops Mount Olympus

9 Tonnerre de Zeus Parc Asterix

10 Fireball Happy Valley Song

 

50 Hell Cat Clementon Lake

51 The Boss Six Flags St Louis

52 Anaconda Walygator Parc

53 Predator Darien Lake

54 The Grizzly Great America

55 Twister II Elitch Gardens

56 Son of Beast (SBNO) Kings Island

57 Sierra Tonante Mirabilandia Park

58 Coaster-Express Parque Warner Madrid

59 White Canyon Yomiuriland

60 The Bandit Movie Park

 

 

1 Expedition GeForce Holiday Park

2 Favorite Wood Coaster Any Park Anywhere

3 Fly Over Mediterranea Happy Valley Chen

3 Kawasemi Tobu Zoo

3 Mega-Lite Happy Valley Song

3 Piraten Djurs Sommerland

4 Eagle's Fortress Everland

5 Bizarro SF New England

5 Dueling Dragons-Fire Islands of Adventu

5 Dueling Dragons-Ice Islands of Adventu

6 Kumba Busch Gardens Afri

6 Montu Busch Gardens Afri

6 SheiKra Busch Gardens Afri

7 Tele2 Insane Grona Lund

7 Winjas Phantasialand

8 Mindbender Galaxyland Amuseme

8 Tornado Sarkanniemi

9 Atlantis Adventure Lotte World

9 Goliath Walibi World

9 Storm Runner Hersheypark

10 Incredible Hulk Islands of Adventu

10 Ride of Steel Darien Lake

 

 

50 Deja Vu Six Flags Magic Mo

50 Iron Wolf Six Flags Great Am

50 Revolution Six Flags Magic Mo

50 Vonkaputous Linnanmaki

59 Cobra Tivoli Friheden

59 Dragon in Snowfield Happy Valley Chen

60 Screamin Squirrel Mysterious Island

61 Dragon Adventureland

62 Spinning Batman Shijingshan Beij.

63 Goudurix Parc Asterix

64 Shenzhou Coaster Shijingshan Beij.

65 Space Mountain Disneyland Paris

[Divv3k]

Robb, I get what you are saying but I really was in severe pain after riding. The thing just left such a bad impression on me. I think only getting that one ride on it hurts it a lot more. When I think back on the ride all I remember is getting my ass kicked and not wanting to repeat the experience. I can't rank the ride based on the experiences of other people so for me the choice is to rank it really low or don't rank it at all.

 

I've rode SM in Paris multiple times and really only the morning rides in 2008 are what puts it so low for me. I've had some pretty good rides on it too. The fact that I've had multiple rides on that coaster helps it.

 

The general consensus is that the Voyage is a top five ride but you don't put it there. And that's cool, I completely understand and respect that. But judging off that one ride I had in which all I rememeber is sheer discomfort and pain (way more than I've ever experienced on SM:M2), I feel my ranking reflects that.

 

I like to think of my rankings being a weighted average af all my rides on a coaster with the most recent season affecting my placing the most. My rides on Piraten this year weren't as good as my ride as 2008 but my ranking still shows how I feel about the ride and how it's aged.

 

I guess the point I'm making is that I understand that other people really liked Tornado and I get the feeling that I got really unlucky but I can't make a judgement based on other people's experiences my ballot has to reflect my opinion. So in the end the end the fact that I only rode Tornado at Bakken that one time (which was sadly a bad experience) puts it low in my ballot. If I get a better ride the next time I ride it I'll be more than happy to rank it higher.