Biggest Park with the Worst Collection of Coasters

[DBru]

The obvious answer is Energylandia. But, besides that, which large, coaster-heavy park do you think has the worst/most mediocre collection of coasters?

I’d have to go with Six Flags Great America or Six Flags Over Texas. SFOT has 13/14 coasters, with only 3 or 4 real standouts. For me, they are New Texas Giant, Shockwave, Runaway Mountain, and Mr. Freeze. Some may consider Titan a standout, but I personally think it’s the dullest form of hyper (along with Goliath at SFMM).

Six Flags Great America has 15 coasters, mostly clones, with a similar amount of standouts. And as fun as Raging Bull and Goliath are, they’re generally considered among the weakest of their types. At least they ended up keeping Whizzer!

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm definitely happy that so many parks are sporting collections of a dozen coasters or more. I know most parks offer more today than they ever have before (maybe not Kings Dominion) and I'm not complaining--I'm just interested in the conversation. (And personally, I prefer a park with a small but very solid lineup--Silver Dollar City, Liseberg, etc.--over a park full of clones). So, what are your thoughts?

[VaCoasters]

I would say Canada's Wonderland.  They have 17 rollercoasters and outside of Behemoth, Leviathan, and Yukon Striker, they're all either average or below average.  A few are just outright terrible. 

[bert425]

agree with you on SFOT. . but I'd also put Giant in "mediocre" category.

and would move Batman up to "decent"

Runaway Mountain is a lot of fun, and not sure why folks never talk about it.

[SharkTums]

Oooo, interesting topic for sure! 

Nagashima Spaland from ten years ago would be a contender but they've made a few improvements with their coasters!

I agree with a lot of the other ones thrown out here. SFoT, SFGAm, Canada's Wonderland, and of course, the winner for sure...Energylandia. 

[coasterbill]

Six Flags over Texas is a decent pick, we liked the park but none of the coasters blew us away. Their best coaster might be the Batman clone. I wouldn’t pick it but I see where you’re coming from.

Aside from that, this place has to be the champion. Ten coasters and... wow.

Of the parks I’ve been to though I’m going with La Ronde. Everyone knows I don’t like that park in general but their coaster lineup does them few favors even though that wasn’t really my main issue with the place. When we went they also had an atrocious standup and that crappy Vekoma. They’ve since removed those and are in the process of building the former (arguably) worst coaster in America so uh... yay?. Even their Batman clone runs worse than it should and while the hyper is fun, it’s the weakest B&M hyper I’ve ever been on by default.

[Canobie Coaster]

I give my nod to Wonderland Eurasia/Ankapark.  17 coasters and wow.

 

[SharkTums]

^^Good call on La Ronde...and we've been to that Chinese park you mentioned...and when we went it had even worse crap!

[cfc]

I agree with Energylandia, thanks to the ridiculous number of kiddie coasters and the disappointing Hyperion. It's like someone started building a huge mini-golf course, but decided to build a theme park instead.

[dankeykang]

Even though it isn't exactly "coaster-heavy", I would have to mention Six Flags St. Louis.  I enjoyed the park, but it does seem to lack a true standout coaster.

Wiener Prater in Austria may also be a decent candidate, since their only two "extreme" coasters are a Boomerang and a Volare.

[Hilltopper39]

These parks are probably not near the top of the list or anything but Worlds of Fun, Valleyfair, and Darien Lake all kind of come to mind. Each park has 7-8 coasters and only one maybe two of them are anything special, Ride of Steel might be the only one at either of those three that comes anywhere near a top 25. Might be able to throw Dorney in that same mix.

 

I'd happily spend a day at any of those parks but they're all pretty decent sized parks with somewhat average coaster collections. 

 

 

[cfc]

I've never been to Darien Lake, but Worlds of Fun, Valleyfair, and Dorney all feel like "generic" Cedar Fair parks to me.

[thrillseeker4552]

When I first visited Carowinds in 2017, I definitely would've put that on the list. Outside the three big B&Ms, the lineup...sucked. I went back in 2019 and Copperhead Strike was a wonderful addition that added more depth. But even now, after the four large coasters, the layout drops off significantly.

I've never been to Canada's Wonderland, but based on the coasters they have, I can totally understand their terrible lineup after Leviathan, Behemoth, Yukon, and perhaps Vortex. Especially with Flight Deck and Time Warp in the mix...

[Haymaker]

35 minutes ago, cfc said:

I've never been to Darien Lake, but Worlds of Fun, Valleyfair, and Dorney all feel like "generic" Cedar Fair parks to me.

SFDL isnt great, and isnt terrible. Generic would be fairly accurate. A Boomerang, a SLC, the first Intamin hyper, the first 5 inversion Arrow that still runs fairly well, a Dinn woodie thats overdue for demolition or RMC (supposedly being retracked with Titan track soon) and a Gerstlauer Iron Shark clone thats smooth and fun.

[CNYCoasterguy11]

As much as I like Kings Dominion, ever since removing Volcano they only have 3 real standouts now (i305, Dominator and Twisted Timbers), Outer Limits is good but its a clone technically and can be a little rough at times, the rest are mediocre at best, nothing real terrible (except maybe Anaconda) but nothing amazing, especially when Busch Gardens kills it down the road from them.

[thrillseeker4552]

^I completely agree about Kings Dominion - I forgot to mention that one in my post. Volcano was an enormous loss for the park, despite gaining Twisted Timbers.

[bert425]

1 hour ago, CNYCoasterguy11 said:

As much as I like Kings Dominion, ever since removing Volcano they only have 3 real standouts now (i305, Dominator and Twisted Timbers), Outer Limits is good but its a clone technically and can be a little rough at times, the rest are mediocre at best, nothing real terrible (except maybe Anaconda) but nothing amazing, especially when Busch Gardens kills it down the road from them.

they have my *favorite* junior coaster in Woodstock Express.

I could ride that sucker all day, so I'd count that in the standout category.  

Flight of Fear is great too - even if it does come to a complete stop at MCBR

and I enjoyed Rebel Yell (can't recall what that racer is called now).   Even Apple Zapple is really good for a pretty standard mouse.

 

Volcano was great, but without it, the only "bad" coasters there (to me), are Anaconda - which at least has a lovely setting over the lake, and the MiniCooper ride, which I just didn't like.

[MrSum1_55]

"7-10 roller coasters, but only 2-3 good ones," pretty much describes a good portion of the big park in North America. 

For me, a disappointing park is one that has a relatively large number of coasters but none that are particularly good. 

Elitch Gardens takes the cake for me. Their best coaster is the Arrow shuttle loop, but even that they make very little effort to keep open. Walibi Belgium has a pretty lame lineup too, but they are fixing that with Kondaa.

I kind of hate to say this, but Lagoon has a very mediocre lineup for how many coasters it has. I thought Cannibal was very overrated. Wicked is good, but the second half is very lame. The Schwarzkopf was surprisingly good. But other than that, it's mostly mediocre clones. I appreciate the fact that they have a historic wood coaster, but I have ridden several other coasters from the same era that were better. 

I am willing to give Lagoon more of a pass because it is not corporate. I would still rather spend a day there than most Six Flags parks even with their very mediocre lineup. 

[CNYCoasterguy11]

25 minutes ago, bert425 said:

Volcano was great, but without it, the only "bad" coasters there (to me), are Anaconda - which at least has a lovely setting over the lake, and the MiniCooper ride, which I just didn't like.

I wouldn't really say they have bad coasters outside of Anaconda, but the rest are just sort of ..meh like middle of the road, nothing crazy but nothing amazing either. Avalanche is at least unique but not super thrilling, and the Racer feels generic along with the wild mouse clone. 

And I don't really count the kid coasters because they are what they are supposed to be. Even adding a 4D free spin wont really make this collection much better.

 

That reminds me of Six Flags New England, they have 2 solid coasters and then fall off the map. Batman and Thunderbolt are the next tier which isnt saying much. Joker, Pandamonium, The Wild Mouse, Flashback, and Goliath are clones and the others are kid coasters.

[coasterbill]

I'm super bummed about Volcano still but the idea that a park with a new RMC and the world's most intense giga coaster in it even gets mentioned in this thread is sort of nuts to me.

[DoinItForTheFame]

I’ve got to also go with SFOT. Sure they have a few good attractions, and an absolutely boring “hyper.” - They’re just missing that one “big” star attraction. None of their coasters really stand out as their *star* attraction. Every time I’ve been to the park, I had a good time... But always left wanting a little more. 

[DBru]

I agree that while my feelings about Kings Dominion have deflated more than expected after the removal of Volcano, it still has a relatively solid lineup. Of course, I'm a Grizzly (at night) and Flight of Fear stan, and I think the Italian Job/Backlot coasters are underrated, so my opinion may not be the majority.

With that said, as the wonderful Busch Gardens Williamsburg continues to expand with unique and exciting additions, I'm a bit worried about whether KD will be able to keep up. And I do not think the weakest-looking-B&M-wing-coaster-ever would do it.

And while Six Flags St. Louis' lineup feels stale due to lack of additions---and the fact that their only "new" coaster in 13 years was a shitty hand-me-down clone---the majority of their 9 coasters are unique and/or thrilling. And they don't even have a kiddie coaster to pad their count. It's too bad Six Flags will never splurge $20 million to reinvigorate that park with a shiny new hyper.

[bert425]

^^ HAHAHAHA. . until you just posted that?

I TOTALLY forgot that Grizzly existed.

and I've had some really good rides on it!  (front car of train, non wheel seat)

[Zand]

I feel like Kings Island circa 2007 is the poster child for this thread. The best coaster (other than a Beast night ride) was either the Premier Clone or Vekoma Flying Dutchman. Insane how fat they've come in 13 years.

 

My home park is SFNE and I think it kind of belongs on this list, but I think Canada's Wonderland takes the cake for current parks.

 

Also, on the Grizzly topic...when I was at KD two years ago I wanted to ride it but couldn't find the damn entrance. I didn't dedicate more than 30 seconds to looking for it but I legitimately just gave up and went elsewhere. HELP?

[DBru]

19 minutes ago, Zand said:

Also, on the Grizzly topic...when I was at KD two years ago I wanted to ride it but couldn't find the damn entrance. I didn't dedicate more than 30 seconds to looking for it but I legitimately just gave up and went elsewhere. HELP?

You mean you didn't intuitively walk through the Dinosaurs Alive gift shop to find Grizzly's unmarked entrance? Was that not obvious??

[anonymouscactus]

There --is-- a sign. lol.



Still don't understand why they couldn't put the grizzly statue out front or something... but whatever. Can we put this on the stupid things cedar fair does... list... we have going?