Overrated Parks

[CreditCrazy]

Kings Island. The park is very nice but some of the operations (cough Firehawk cough) were terrible and the coaster collection is horrible.

[Jerrykoala2112]

^I respect your opinion and all, but I found Kings Island to be a really under rated park. The ride operations for any flyer are slow so you can't really say that as an excuse. SFGAM's Superman always has a 90 minute wait when everything else is 10-20 minutes.

 

I was actually thinking the same thing about Kings Island as you were. They have what, 5 wooden coasters? I was thinking this park's collection wasn't too great either. But I think the park was so good because I was not expecting much from it. Overall I liked it.

[G$ Kurt]

Yay for first TPR post! woot!

 

Anyways, i must say that as much as I do love CP, it is easily not the best park and if you think it is you havn't been to enough parks yet. CP is lacking so terribly with flat rides and even the ones that they do have their cycle is 2 seconds long or they run at 1/3 speed.

 

Now if you want a park with good flat rides go to Canada's Wonderland, one of the most underated parks in my opinion!

[Capitalize]

I have to say IOA right off the bat. Its an enjoyable park and I have fun when I'm there, but I never felt that any of the rides or the park as a whole deserved the hype it got. Hulk is a really mediocre ride at best especially nowadays, the launch and zero-g roll are fun but after that I always found it be one of the least interesting and poorly laid out B&M's I've been on. Dueling Dragons is a fun enough ride. Jurassic Park is always a good time depending on how many of the animatronics are working... After these rides I feel like the ride quality starts to slip and I always find myself running out of things I really feel like doing sooner rather then later. Spiderman honestly has never done a whole lot for me, I think its a decent ride but I just never bought into the greatest dark ride ever type hype it built up after opening... But yeah, all in all, IOA never does that much for me.

 

I'm reluctant to put Cedar Point on an overrated list, but I find their coaster collection to be great all in all. My only issue is much like others my last trip was really affected by rain. Constantly drizzling off and on causing all the coasters to shut down or switch to one train operation. Ugh.

 

Kings Island. The park is very nice but some of the operations (cough Firehawk cough) were terrible and the coaster collection is horrible.

I find Firehawk to be run far better then any of the other Vekoma flying dutchmen, PKI actually manages to run multiple trains and stations most the time...

[monsterfan99]

Three parks for me fall in the over-rated list.

 

Cedar Point - I enjoyed the park and had a great time there. Is it the best theme park in the world? I'm not even sure I'd call it the best theme park in Ohio as I loved Kings Island.

 

SF Great America - I like the park and it is my home park, but it seems like they could do so much better with it. They have made some bad ride decisions recently and now enjoy plastering ads everywhere. But they have no competition within 3 hours, so not like they need to try.

 

Islands of Adventure - The park looks great but there is not much to do there. If you have no interest in doing water rides, that takes out a good chunk of the rides. Hopefully WWoHP will fix a lot of those problems.

 

Even though I feel those parks are over-rated, I still enjoyed the parks. Outside of the hellhole that is Como Town/Como Zoo, I enjoy all my park visits.

[coolcalicoaster]

Cedar Point bashers live for threads like these!

 

I have been to most major parks across the US and if Cedar Point is overrated in your opinion then MM and Great Adventure should also been on everyone of those lists.

I love when people say they lack flats Look at most other parks. People say they don't have enough for the family to do? I see a huge kiddie area and plenty of family rides with a new one on the way! SFMM has done nothing in recent years but build coasters. Two years in a row Way to take care of the family Magic Mountain, and where are your flats? Six Flags puts so much into MM and GADV but there are so many other parks that are more deserving of a great ride from SF.

 

My point is, CP may not be your favorite park and thats okay, but to say its overrated is obnoxious. CP provides a wide range of rides, a great atmosphere, and a setting on Lake Erie that is beyond anything I have seen from most parks. CP is not a Universal or Disney park and they don't claim to be. As far as thrill parks go CP is is every bit of, if not way better, than most parks in US. This is coming from a former MM fan boy that expanded his experience when I moved away from California.

 

I am happy to be at any park with a good collection of roller coasters. I don't think MM is all that it's supposed to be, but I would love to spend a day there this year. Same with any park in the US.

[xVicesAndVirtues]

^Yeah, and CP fanboys totally live to bash CP bashers

 

But, all joking aside, I'd have to agree with you. I live too far away from Cedar Point to be a fanboy, but I REALLY liked their flat ride collection. maXair was incredible and had a nice long ride cycle. Skyhawk was awesome and my first Screamin Swing experience. On top of that, they have tons of classic flat rides that I've never seen before. And, while I guess they're not "flat rides", I really like how they have both the S&S tower complex AND an Intamin first generation freefall.

 

Plus, on one of the days when it was pouring outside, me and my friend did some "exploring" around the park, and what we found was really nice. We took the Cedar Point and Lake Erie Railroad, which gives you awesome views of both the old and the new attractions in the park...plus, it was one of my first theme park train experiences that had an "outdoor dark ride" feel to it, when you go through the western themed part of the ride. We also walked through just about every little shop in the Frontier Trail, and I thought it was great how they have all kinds of artists and craftsmen working for the park and selling their work. I found Cedar Point to be a park that both families and thrill seekers can spend a vacation at. As much as I love Great Adventure and it's coaster collection, you definitely can't get that kind of experience there.

[cfc]

My point is, CP may not be your favorite park and thats okay, but to say its overrated is obnoxious.

 

It's not "obnoxious" for someone to have an opinion that differs from yours. What's "obnoxious" is how some people state their opinions--see example quoted above.

 

I've never been to Cedar Point, so I have no opinion on the park one way or the other (looking forward to visiting next spring, though).

[BDesvignes]

It's funny that everywhere you go when some one says something other than "Cedar Point is the best" someone gets mad. I just went there for the first time this year, and I think the park is nice. I don't really care for the midway there, but the frontier trails area is really nice. I wish they would plant some trees and do more themeing throughout the park, but that's never going to happen haha. I liked their flat rides and I wish SFGadv would get more, but I have to say that SFGadv has a better coaster line up IMO. They have better themeing and atmosphere too IMO.

[dammie16@vt.edu]

I am going to put in another vote for Kings Island.

 

I had a terrible time both trips to this park. It was crowded both times, which isn't the parks fault, but what bothered me was the fact that all of the lines stuck into the midways causing large amounts of mobbing and confusion. This was not due to the crowds being extra large either, a wait for DB was still only 1-1.5 hours but the line curled out and about.

 

Make more Queuing area!

 

Second thing was the Coasters were not what I hoped. The only one that passed expectation was Flight Deck. I liked FoF better at KD, I liked Goliath at SFoG more then DB, I liked the Crypt MUCH more at KD etc.

 

The Beast was good but didn't surpass expectation and so on. I can't compare Firehawk or Vortex (That was the custom looper right?) because I didn't ride either because I didn't feel like waiting.

 

So there is my two cents!

 

Chris "is now waiting for the questions/complaints/retorts from PKIman" Damm

 

P.S. I am not a believer that CP is overrated because in the Enthusiast community it is never hyped crazily and the GP had different desires for parks then we do and I have never heard a GP say CP wasn't an amazing experience.

[G$ Kurt]

^ That is a very good point, to the GP CP usually delivers. But like I said there are some things that I believe CP does better than anyone else, but there are just some areas that i have to be critical of. CP's flats are not good. CP's Monster is nothing like KI's (in that KI's is amazing) the scrambler has the shortest interval ever, both Matterhorn and Super Himalaya go at a snails pace and don't do the reverse part of the cycle. Power tower is too big for an S&S tower and much of the force if not all is lost. Troika Troika Troika is laughable at how slow it goes. Space Spiral seems to have been just forgotten. Not to mention that all of these rides have terrible placement in that they are just in the sea of concrete that is a cedar fair midway.

 

Now Maxair and Skyhawk are stand out attractions I will admit that.

[coolcalicoaster]

Power tower is too big for an S&S tower

 

lol Can someone please explain this to me?

[Legendary]

Top 3 overrated. Kings Island, Magic Mountain, Kings Dominion.

 

 

All have VERY mediocre (at best) coaster collections (in my opinion, of course) and when it comes to KD and KI, the Cedar Fair-ishness of the parks does not help.

 

Of course, I haven't been back since Diamondback, Firehawk, Terminator, Tatsu, X2 (went on the original.. did not care for it), Dominator (in it's new home) or the Dale Earnhardt ride. I am making my way back to these parks next year.. perhaps the influx of new rides may change my opinion.

[G$ Kurt]

Power tower is too big for an S&S tower

 

lol Can someone please explain this to me?

 

Lol, yes, I mean that unlike the smaller S&S Towers, the forces on Power Tower are relatively weak. This is particularly true in the case of the shot side. The drop side can be good, just depends sometimes. For some reason PT likes to be different from time to time. I don't mean that it's "too big", there never is such a thing at CP!

[Maximo37]

Disney's Hollywood Studios - I just hate that park for some reason... I call for them to close it down for a year and re-open as "TAKE TWO"... then they could fix all the "attractions" which suck (to me at least) (ie: Sounds Dangerous, Backlot Tour, American Idol, Star Tours, Beauty and the Beast, Narnia, One Mans Dream ((yeah, it's time to re-vamp it))... I work at Disney and am not even sure if they do an Animation Tour anymore?!) That park COULD be good, but as it stands, I just dread going there when family is in town...

 

IOA - There's just not enough to do... The attractions they do have are great, but overall, its just a 1/2 day park to me...

[cfc]

^I've always rather liked the Studios park, but I can understand your feelings. For me, the "Old Hollywood" is classic Disney-level theming, but the "Backlot" is a bit underwhelming. (I'd love to see them replace the tour with something good.)

[FeelTheFORCE]

My point is, CP may not be your favorite park and thats okay, but to say its overrated is obnoxious.

 

It's not "obnoxious" for someone to have an opinion that differs from yours. What's "obnoxious" is how some people state their opinions--see example quoted above.

 

I've never been to Cedar Point, so I have no opinion on the park one way or the other (looking forward to visiting next spring, though).

 

I think what coolcalicoaster was getting at was that there are the people who have world class parks like CP in their back yard, yet they still complain about the littlest things, and are extremely picky. I find that kind of annoying, especially considering the fact that there are people who would give anything to go to a park such as CP and just can't, whether it be because they are too far away, can't afford it, etc.

[xVicesAndVirtues]

Power tower is too big for an S&S tower

 

lol Can someone please explain this to me?

 

Lol, yes, I mean that unlike the smaller S&S Towers, the forces on Power Tower are relatively weak. This is particularly true in the case of the shot side. The drop side can be good, just depends sometimes. For some reason PT likes to be different from time to time. I don't mean that it's "too big", there never is such a thing at CP!

 

I'm still at a loss as to what you mean here...I went on both space shot and turbo drop...and, I don't see how either are "too big" for an S&S tower. All S&S towers I've been on have dropped the same way, meaning they let you go and you fall toward the ground. Power Tower's drop side is the best S&S tower I've ever been on, because you go up slower and higher than any S&S tower I've been on, and because you drop for longer because, well, it's taller.

 

As far as the space shots go...I find some S&S towers to launch with a lot more force than others...and it has nothing to do with the height. I find that IOA's space shots are relatively weak, and the same goes for Sasquatch at Great Escape. However, I've found Dorney Park and SFNE's towers to provide a much stronger shot. Now, all these vary in height, and I've actually found the shortest one I've been on to provide the weakest shot. As far as Power Tower goes, I found the space shot to be right in between my most and least powerful, from the initial second you start launching, but, obviously, the launch provides more upward force overall, because you have to go higher.

 

In total, I've been on 14 S&S towers, and height has no relation to the ride experience for space shots, and only adds extra thrill for turbo drops.

[King of Ka]

My point is, CP may not be your favorite park and thats okay, but to say its overrated is obnoxious.

 

I have to disagree with you here; to me, Cedar Point is somewhat overrated. Not because it's not a good or even amazing park, but simply because the hype it is given is really just unbelievable. Any show, newspaper article, Golden Ticket Award, or anything else that mentions CP never gives anything less than a stunning, best-park-in-the-world review, and I, with others, don't think it's deserving of such praise. In fact, I think that many people who "bash" CP don't actually dislike the park, but merely dislike what they perceive to be a media and public infatuation, along with an army of unreasonable fanboys who simply can't imagine CP not being the best.

 

EDIT: ^I've been on three S&S towers, a basic double shot, Dominator@Dorney, and Power Tower. Power Tower was the weakest to me, and Dominator the strongest.

[larrygator]

In fact, I think that many people who "bash" CP don't actually dislike the park, but merely dislike what they perceive to be a media and public infatuation, along with an army of unreasonable fanboys who simply can't imagine CP not being the best.

 

I wholehearted agree with this statement. I usually enjoy my trips to Cedar Point, but not the best "park". Since tastes vary I won't dismiss anyone who says it is best for coasters. And for the record, I would never consider SFGAdv a great park with it's vanishing flat ride agenda. Although, I do go there and ride Nitro and El Toro for hours at a time, but that doesn't make it a great park.

 

While CP has improved in the flats area with the fairly recent additions Skyhawk and Maxair, that is where the quality stops. The remainder of the flats are all run at mediocre cycles, except Cedar Downs.

 

The fact of the matter is that the majority of people go to amusement parks for more than just coasters.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^^Superman @ SFoT is the best S&S has to offer...period.

 

^^You took the words right out of my mouth. Cedar Point is a great park, but to be boasted around the world as the best amusement park on God's green Earth is a bit much. Yes, it's relatively clean, has fast operations, and the staffing seems to be friendly, but these are all (or should be) a STANDARD of your operations, not the extraordinary. It is for the same reason I think the "new" Six Flags Magic Mountain is overrated. It gets praise for being better that what is was circa 2004 and before, and it is. But to talk about the place like it can now compete with parks that have been effiecient, clean, and friendly for DECADES seems unfair to me.

[BDesvignes]

... And for the record, I would never consider SFGAdv a great park with it's vanishing flat ride agenda. Although, I do go there and ride Nitro and El Toro for hours at a time, but that doesn't make it a great park.

 

 

That's what I was saying about the lack of flats there. If they had more flats it would be a great park.

[Philrad71]

CP is lacking so terribly with flat rides and even the ones that they do have their cycle is 2 seconds long or they run at 1/3 speed.

 

I would have to say it would depend on the day and how bad the lines were running. I have been there when Skyhawk seemed like it went to max height maybe twice each way and other times when it went at least four to five each way. I have never had a short cycle on Max Air.

 

I will say some of the other flats seem a little tame, but I have gotten similar experiences at other bigger theme parks. I still like doing the Monster/Spider and I would not say the cycle is any less than the one's at Idlewild or Waldameer.

 

Witches Wheel/Enterprise rides always seem like they are good for about three to four revolutions completely upside down and then it's coming back down.

 

As far as Matterhorn, Troika and Himalaya...I don't see much difference in those either unless you ride them at a fair where they will typically run them a bit faster. I could have probably power-walked around the loading platform for Himalaya faster than the one at Hershey was running this past weekend.

 

Sooo...in a nutshell, I really have not seen a tremendous amount of difference in flat ride experiences at other theme and amusement parks I have visited in the past.

 

The only park I can think of where the ride cycles seemed incredibly lengthy was at Martin's Fantasy Island a couple of weeks ago. I was practically begging to get off that Star Flyer ride...ten spins, drop halfway down the tower and then go back to the top for twenty more spins was a bit ridiculous!! Not to mention what seemed like a half an hour on the Sizzler!

[FeelTheFORCE]

^ Regarding the post you quoted, not your post...I believe both Skyhawk and MaXair are the tallest and fastest of their kind. 1/3 speed? I doubt it...at least for those two.

[G$ Kurt]

Well of course not for Maxair and Skyhawk. Those rides are exempt from my flat ride attack. The 1/3 speed I'm referring to would be troika, matterhorn, and super himalaya. I would agree with the idea that this is more of a big park thing and less of just a CP thing. The one flat ride that cp has destroyed though is Calypso. Not that its ride experience has been changed, but its deterioration/disappearance of it's lighting package or theming is depressing. Super Himalaya got it pretty bad too, probably one of the lamest looking Music Express I'v ever seen. Ocean Motion on the other hand has fantastic theming and setting, but is a terrible ride.