The "Pleasant/Unpleasant Surprise" Thread

[Pirate]

An unpleasant ride is Colossal Headbanger at Thorpe Park. It was just so rough and headbanging. Ouch.

 

I've heard the only good seats are the front seats. Can anyone confirm?

[thrillseeker4552]

I just arrived back home from a two-week vacation to the East Coast where I rode over 40 new coasters, so I figured I would give this thread a bump and post some of my pleasant and unpleasant surprises of the trip.

 

Unpleasant Surprises:

1. Lightning Racer at Hersheypark. I think they are solid wooden coasters, but I did not find it as amazing as people made it out to be. The racing aspect was fun, but I feel that if either of the coasters stood alone, they would be average. It's a nice set of coasters, but not "OMG NEED TO RIDE AGAIN" material. Essentially, the racing aspect is all it has going for it.

 

2. Stinger at Dorney Park. I had already ridden Invertigo at KI and thought it was a fun coaster, so I figured the ride would be exactly the same. Turns out, it was WAY worse. WAY worse. It was one of the most awful rides I've ever ridden. I may even prefer the regular Boomerangs since the restraints are less ridiculous. This was just as bad or worse than SLCs. But hey, at least it was open.

 

3. Thunderbolt at Six Flags New England. I guess this coaster gets a decent amount of positive reviews as it is almost an "overshadowed" coaster at the park, so I went in with decently high expectations, but it beat the living crap out of me, and no, I did not ride on a wheel seat. It was really, really bad. But it still wasn't as bad as some other classic wooden coaster...

 

4. THUNDERHAWK at Dorney Park. Holy crap. This ride was terrible. I was expecting a solid woodie since it got new trains, some retracking, and new paint this year, but it was terrible (and again, I was not in a wheel seat). Ugh, it was awful. I'm pretty tolerant to rough wooden coasters (I grew up with GhostRider at my home park), but this was at an all new level. I almost felt like I cracked a rib cage. Maybe it was better with the old trains/restraints? Ouch, ouch, ouch.

 

5. Superman - Ride of Steel at Six Flags America. Maybe I was just spoiled since I rode Skyrush, Superman/Bizarro, and Nitro before this one, but it underwhelmed me quite a bit. The long helices were rattly and boring. It had decent airtime, but it really only started to get good during the last 10 seconds of the ride. I could tell it was one of Intamin's first hypers. Luckily, they have improved a ton (see Skyrush).

 

Pleasant Surprises:

1. Skyrush at Hersheypark. OH. MY. GOD. I went to this coaster expecting some great, and after seeing POV videos several times, my expectations were jacked sky high. And this coaster STILL blew me away. It is so freakin' intense. To anyone who has not ridden it, Skyrush is the perfect example of "videos don't do justice." This ride completely blew all my already-high expectations out of the water. It easily has the most intense forces I have ever experienced on a coaster. Yeah, my thighs were a little crushed at the end, but the crush to the thigh is worth the rush to the sky. Plus, the restraints loosen a little as you stack behind the station. Oh my god, this ride... Intamin, you are evil. Growing up in California with pretty lackluster hyper coasters (really just Goliath and Desperado), this Intamin machine kicked my a$$. I feel like I've been exposed to a whole new world of roller coasters. I can't wait to ride Intimidator 305. BRAVO Hershey and Intamin. And after hearing this coaster has been neutered a little, I can't even fathom how insane it was in 2012. I don't like ranking coasters or keeping a top 10 list since there are so many different types and ways to rank them, but Skyrush has to be #1. It just has to be. It's that amazing.

 

2. Fahrenheit at Hersheypark. Don't underestimate this little ride! It was my first Eurofighter-esque coaster, and I loved it. It was smooth, forceful, had unique elements, and the pop of airtime at the end was surprising! It's definitely an overlooked coaster in my opinion. Oh, and the soft restraints are great.

 

3. Storm Runner at Hersheypark. This is what Xcelerator should have been (even though it came first, but whatever). The restraints are comfortable, the launch is great, and the heartline roll/snake dive combo is so unique and awesome. I definitely prefer this to Xcelerator and maybe even TTD (haven't ridden TTD since 2014).

 

4. Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure. What an awesome hyper coaster! It's not as intense as Skyrush obviously, but that doesn't mean it's a bad ride. It's glass smooth and is filled with fun floater airtime. Not to mention, it has what are probably the most comfortable restraints in the industry. California could desperately use a ride like this! If I had to marathon a coaster all day long, it would be Nitro. Also, I was surprised that there weren't any seatbelts on this one. What B&M Hypers have seatbelts besides the Cedar Fair ones? Having just the lap bar and no floor to raise lower, and with 9 rows per train with 3 trains running, these B&M Hypers have kick-a$$ capacity.

 

I didn't mention rides like El Toro, Superman/Bizarro, or Kingda Ka since they were about what I expected them to be.

[SteelForceless]

Pleasant surprise: Skyrush

Whenever I had talked with any of my friends about Hersheypark, they always complain that it crushes their thighs. Knowing about this, I got on the ride expecting the worst. 60 seconds later, I'm screaming at the top of my lungs because my ass felt like it was several inches in the air via first airtime hill. It blew me away. That ride also contained minimal thigh crushing, since I held on to the grab bars for dear life. It's my favorite coaster now.

 

Unpleasant surprise: Thunderhawk (Dorney)

After the renovations for 2016, I was hoping that it would be a better ride. Unfortunately, it is only marginally better, and even that is a bit generous. It's still quite painful (although to a lesser extent in some areas), and the last bunny hills are still trimmed. Not much smoother, either.

 

Unpleasant surprise: Storm Runner?!?

In the conversations that I would have with my friends about Hersheypark, many would list this as their favorite ride. I never heard anything bad about this ride, only great things from everyone. My expectations were sky high for this ride. For the first half of the ride, those expectations were exceeded. The launch, top hat, and dive loop (I think?) were all wonderful. Then came the flying snake dive. The train flew into this element, and began to play ping pong with my head. It ruined my ride and my expectations. Perhaps I got a bad ride or something. Luckily, it got the new restraints, so I will be able to ride it again in about a week and hopefully change my mind about it.

[Physical]

Unpleasant surprise: Storm Runner?!?

In the conversations that I would have with my friends about Hersheypark, many would list this as their favorite ride. I never heard anything bad about this ride, only great things from everyone. My expectations were sky high for this ride. For the first half of the ride, those expectations were exceeded. The launch, top hat, and dive loop (I think?) were all wonderful. Then came the flying snake dive. The train flew into this element, and began to play ping pong with my head. It ruined my ride and my expectations. Perhaps I got a bad ride or something. Luckily, it got the new restraints, so I will be able to ride it again in about a week and hopefully change my mind about it.

 

Hand over my heart, hand on a bible, swear to god. The new restraints have rocketed Stormrunner to my top 5 coasters. Any seat, any day, it is now an amazing experience. No headbanging (Neck chopping would be more accurate here, haha) to speak of, loads of insane and unexpected g's, and overall a massively fun experience.

 

Same goes for Fahrenheit. Those corkscrews used to give their best guillotine impersonation with the horse collars it had before. Now there's practically no downside!

[SteelForceless]

Unpleasant surprise: Storm Runner?!?

In the conversations that I would have with my friends about Hersheypark, many would list this as their favorite ride. I never heard anything bad about this ride, only great things from everyone. My expectations were sky high for this ride. For the first half of the ride, those expectations were exceeded. The launch, top hat, and dive loop (I think?) were all wonderful. Then came the flying snake dive. The train flew into this element, and began to play ping pong with my head. It ruined my ride and my expectations. Perhaps I got a bad ride or something. Luckily, it got the new restraints, so I will be able to ride it again in about a week and hopefully change my mind about it.

 

Hand over my heart, hand on a bible, swear to god. The new restraints have rocketed Stormrunner to my top 5 coasters. Any seat, any day, it is now an amazing experience. No headbanging (Neck chopping would be more accurate here, haha) to speak of, loads of insane and unexpected g's, and overall a massively fun experience.

 

Same goes for Fahrenheit. Those corkscrews used to give their best guillotine impersonation with the horse collars it had before. Now there's practically no downside!

That's great to hear! I'll be there Friday to test it out again!

[Johnlloyd]

One of my pleasant surprise coasters would have to be The Beast at Kings Island. Prior to me conquering The Beast during my second visit to Kings Island, I heard it was terribly rough and painful. But, when I rode it on June 16th of this year for the first time, I greatly enjoyed and now regard it as my one of my favourite wooden coasters!

 

Now onto one of my unpleasant surprise coasters which would have to be The Bat (formerly Top Gun and Flight Deck) at Kings Island. During my first visit to Kings Island during July 2014, I was quite excited to ride and experience The Bat which is a clone of Vortex at Canada's Wonderland. Considering how amazing Vortex at Canada's Wonderland is, I was expecting The Bat to have the same amazing-ness since it's a clone of Vortex. Anyways, my ride on The Bat was quite uncomfortable and completely boring. I don't know what went wrong with The Bat but, it's the exact opposite of Vortex at Canada's Wonderland. Needless to say, I rode The Bat again during my second visit to Kings Island this past June and noticed it was even worse than it was two years ago. I hope they have plans to maintain The Bat better in the future as I greatly enjoy suspended swinging coasters and would hate to see this one go further downhill in terms of smoothness.

[thrillseeker4552]

One of my pleasant surprise coasters would have to be The Beast at Kings Island. Prior to me conquering The Beast during my second visit to Kings Island, I heard it was terribly rough and painful. But, when I rode it on June 16th of this year for the first time, I greatly enjoyed and now regard it as my one of my favourite wooden coasters!

 

Now onto one of my unpleasant surprise coasters which would have to be The Bat (formerly Top Gun and Flight Deck) at Kings Island. During my first visit to Kings Island during July 2014, I was quite excited to ride and experience The Bat which is a clone of Vortex at Canada's Wonderland. Considering how amazing Vortex at Canada's Wonderland is, I was expecting The Bat to have the same amazing-ness since it's a clone of Vortex. Anyways, my ride on The Bat was quite uncomfortable and completely boring. I don't know what went wrong with The Bat but, it's the exact opposite of Vortex at Canada's Wonderland. Needless to say, I rode The Bat again during my second visit to Kings Island this past June and noticed it was even worse than it was two years ago. I hope they have plans to maintain The Bat better in the future as I greatly enjoy suspended swinging coasters and would hate to see this one go further downhill in terms of smoothness.

 

Interesting you say that about Bat. I rode it in July 2014 as well and thought it was great (but I haven't ridden Vortex). Maybe there is a difference since Bat has 7 cars and Vortex has 6? More wear and tear on the track, maybe?

[LiftThrill]

Pleasant surprises:

-Mr Freeze Reverse Blast - way more fun and intense than it looks

-Switchback - was not expecting a top ten coaster from such a tiny little woodie

-Raptor - expected a super intense headache machine, got an amazing, forceful invert that's tons of fun

-Mean Streak - not nearly as rough as people say, plus it's a ton of fun

 

 

Unpleasant surprises:

-The Legend - thought I'd like it way more than I did

-The Raven - incredibly rough

-Firehawk - how on earth does anyone like this? awkward, clunky, and painful

-Banshee - industrialized headache machine. still fun but one of my least favorite B&Ms

-Tennessee Tornado - why do people say this is the best arrow looper? ouch