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Roller Coaster Top Ten - August Update (TL;DR)
12 years ago
General
EDIT: As of mid-September this list is horribly out of date, should be disregarded in terms of order, and has some coasters that are no longer a part of my compiled top 10 coaster list (Compiled meaning my list includes both wood and steel). The top two coasters are correct and not moving. I will be posting a journal with an updated list once I'm done riding new coasters for the season (Mid-October most likely) and that'll be definitive.
Why is this list so inaccurate? I'd say it has to do with my emotional state of mind after the trips I took. Now that time has past and I've been able to do some venting, I can think about and make a more realistic decision of what rides I like more than others. I'll give you a hint - Kumba, ShieKra, and Millenium Force are moving up the list, while Thunderhead drops a bit. We'll see how I feel when I get around to the new journal.
Well since I wrote the last coaster journal I took several park trips. As expected, my top ten list has changed, both in order and new additions. The new additions to my list are, Millennium Force, Diamondback, and Maverick, all from a trip to Ohio I took to get out to Kings Island and Cedar Point. The parks I made it out to this month were Fun Spot America, Six Flags Great Adventure, Dorney Park, SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa, Kings Island, and Cedar Point. Dorney Park did not provide any coaster contributions even close to my top 10 (They do have a great collection), but I have to say Dorney Park is the best new park I’ve been to this year.
The worst ride from all these trips was Mean Streak at Cedar Point by far. What a pile of crap.
With the new additions, Millennium Force, Diamondback, and Maverick the rides Griffon, Apollo’s Chariot, and Manta have been pushed off my list. Manta has actually fallen back quite a bit after the last time I rode it. Still an absolutely fantastic ride and the pretzel loop still stands as the single most intense coaster element I’ve ever experienced.
Beast and Top Thrill Dragster do not make my top 10 list. They are both exceptional rides that I can’t wait to experience again, but they did not connect with me on a level that puts them on this list. I have a feeling Beast at night *might* change its list status. Also, I found all the criticism I’ve ever heard about GateKeeper to be a load of crap and thought the ride was absolutely fantastic.
Definitely a highlight of this month has been making it to 100 credits. As of writing this, I have now ridden 110 different coasters. I am looking forward to see what new rides I get on next. Crossing my fingers I can make it out to Six Flags Over Georgia and Wild Adventures before the end of the season. That'd be a whole lot more coasters to ride, and might change this list all over again.
Okay so, just like last time, the list I've written up below features both wooden and steel coasters and is pretty much in a constant state of fluctuation. I like all of these rides very much and the order they're presented in changes when a coaster ride impresses me enough or makes me re-evaluate where it should stand on my list. I just do this for fun, so the order isn't really that important. With each coaster, I've written a little snippit of why the coaster falls on my list. I also include the make, model, park the ride is located, a link to the RCDB page of the ride, and a link to a front seat POV.
The only rides on this list I have not been on this month are Thunderhead and Storm Runner.
The list:
#10) Millennium Force – Intamin AG – Gigacoaster – Cedar Point – Sandusky, Ohio – RCDB – POV
-One hell of a rush. That sums up this roller coaster better than anything else. Plummeting down the 300 foot drop and speeding through overbanked turns and airtime hills at 93 miles an hour is just breathtaking. That being said, I still can’t help but feel disappointed with this ride. Based on many positive comments about this ride I expected it to be much more than it is. This ride isn’t even g-force intense in the slightest (I rode in the back row), with the most intense moments coming in at the end of the ride (the small airtime hump and the small overbank). This coaster is all about the first drop and the wild sense of speed, which to me it pulls both off incredibly well.
#9) White Lightning - Great Coasters International - Wooden (Out and back) - Fun Spot America - Orlando, Florida - RCDB - POV
-This coaster really is special to me. I’ve been on it 105 times so far and it still stands out as an incredibly fun ride, just as fun as the first time I rode it. I have even had the pleasure of riding this ride in my fursuit, and that was absolutely unforgettable. Its short height is deceiving, as this ride is fast and absolutely hauls through its course. The airtime on the double up and double down is just fantastic, and the crazy 90 degree turn-around is wild. From the drop to the ending breaks, this is one exceptional ride and among the best in Florida.
#8) Nitro - Bolliger and Mabillard - Hypercoaster - Six Flags Great Adventure - Jackson, New Jersey - RCDB - POV
-This ride remains one of the most solid rides I have ever been on. The helix is the best one I’ve ever experienced on a B&M coaster and there is so much floater airtime on this ride you’re hardly in your seat. So why did it fall on my list? Diamondback has overshadowed it as my new favorite B&M hypercoaster. Regardless, this is a must ride and re-ride every time I go to Six Flags Great Adventure. Such a fun ride.
#7) Kumba - Bolliger and Mabillard - Sit-down Looping - Busch Gardens Tampa - Tampa, Florida - RCDB - POV
-The more I ride this ride, the more I enjoy it. I’ve gotten riding in the back with little-to-no headbanging involved down to a science and no row is more intense than the back on this ride. I am still floored at just how fast this thing plows through the zero-g roll and the cobra roll. Zero-g rolls are my favorite inversion and the one on this ride is absolutely fantastic. Oh, and the helix at the end is fucking ridiculous. Still to this day it is hands down the most intense B&M and one of the most intense coasters I’ve been on.
#6) Diamondback – Bolliger and Mabillard – Hypercoaster – Kings Island – Kings Mills, Ohio – RCDB – POV
-I fully expected to enjoy this ride. I did not expect to enjoy this ride more than Nitro or Apollo’s Chariot, the other B&M hypers I’ve been on, but I sure as hell did. This ride has the most intense airtime I’ve yet to experience on a B&M. Like the others, the vast majority of it is floater air, but several times during the ride there is some ejector air thrown in. Also unlike Nitro’s forceless hammerhead, Diamondback’s hammerhead is much more forceful and fun. The best seat on this ride is in the back row, and the drop into the splashdown in that seat is just fucking awesome. The only smudge on this ride is that it rattles a lot (Especially the bottom of the first drop and the approach to the hill after the hammerhead). I can’t knock points off it for that because despite being slightly annoying at first I found it easy enough to ignore. Oh, and I found the new style B&M hyper train seating arrangement to be quite wonderful.
#5) Thunderhead - Great Coasters International - Wooden (Twister) - Dollywood - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - RCDB - POV
-Want a wild, out-of-control feeling on a roller coaster? Ride this ride. The speedy twists, turns, and drops on this ride are absolutely nuts. The station run-by remains one of my favorite moments on a coaster, ever. This ride is not even slightly unpleasantly rough despite being such a twisty wooden coaster. I love the feeling of speed as this ride blasts through its entire (well-paced) length.
#4) Storm Runner - Intamin AG - Accelerator (Hydraulic Launch) - Hersheypark - Hershey, Pennsylvania - RCDB - POV
-Now get ready, here we go. Just hearing those words gets my adrenaline pumping. This ride blasts off, going 72 mph in just two seconds flat and rushing up a top-hat element, much like other accelerator coasters. Unlike the massive accelerators like Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster, Storm Runner is much more than just up and down (as good as that may be). Here we see a much more thought out (and at parts, insane) layout. The hangtime on the immelman inversion is top-notch. The heartline roll / flying snake dive one-two punch is just fucking insane, and is one of the best moments on a coaster I’ve ever been on.
#3) Montu - Bolliger and Mabillard - Inverted - Busch Gardens Tampa - Tampa, Florida - RCDB - POV
-The Egyptian god of war hops up on my list for two reasons. One, I just can’t get enough of this ride as many of the elements are just pure brilliance, and two, I just haven’t been on Storm Runner in a while. The batwing inversion and the corkscrew over the wall I have a feeling will stay among my favorite moments on a coaster, ever. The first drop on this thing still to this day takes me by surprise just how amazing it is.
#2) Maverick – Intamin AG – Blitz Coaster – Cedar Point – Sandusky, Ohio – RCDB – POV
-My new favorite steel coaster. This ride seems like the ride designers spazzed out and pasted so many different coaster elements together and just saw if it worked out. My goodness yes it does. This “Frankenstein’s monster” of a coaster is a damn masterpiece. The pacing is nearly perfect and the intensity is fucking relentless. This is far above every other ride before it on this list. This ride includes ridiculous directional changes, insane airtime, an incredibly fast second launch, a beyond-vertical drop, and two perfect inversions. Like I said, this ride has pretty much everything. The launched “lift hill” at the beginning and the crooked hills at the end are the most WTF and unique parts of this ride. I don't know what part of the ride I enjoyed most, other than all of it.
#1) El Toro - Intamin AG - Wooden (Out and back) - Six Flags Great Adventure - Jackson, New Jersey - RCDB - POV
-This ride is still hands down my favorite coaster I have ever been on. Everything on this ride is so good, I can hardly believe it. The ejector airtime and intensity of this ride is so incredible I can’t say anything other than by the time the ride is pulling into the station I am laughing hysterically at just how much fun the ride was. The hill near Rolling Thunder has such ludicrously forceful ejector airtime I don’t have the words for just how fucking awesome it is. I have tried many times to hold my hands up for the entire ride but I simply cannot. No, I am not putting them down to grab the restraints. This ride is so relentlessly intense that my hands are thrown down at times, whether I want them down or not. I fucking love this ride.
In related news,
has made an FA page for coaster fans, 
coasterenthusiastsoffa. I am a co-moderator with him, and while I don't know exactly what to do with it yet, I want to help make it something a little fun for furry coaster lovers out there. I know there are a lot of you.
Why is this list so inaccurate? I'd say it has to do with my emotional state of mind after the trips I took. Now that time has past and I've been able to do some venting, I can think about and make a more realistic decision of what rides I like more than others. I'll give you a hint - Kumba, ShieKra, and Millenium Force are moving up the list, while Thunderhead drops a bit. We'll see how I feel when I get around to the new journal.
Well since I wrote the last coaster journal I took several park trips. As expected, my top ten list has changed, both in order and new additions. The new additions to my list are, Millennium Force, Diamondback, and Maverick, all from a trip to Ohio I took to get out to Kings Island and Cedar Point. The parks I made it out to this month were Fun Spot America, Six Flags Great Adventure, Dorney Park, SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa, Kings Island, and Cedar Point. Dorney Park did not provide any coaster contributions even close to my top 10 (They do have a great collection), but I have to say Dorney Park is the best new park I’ve been to this year.
The worst ride from all these trips was Mean Streak at Cedar Point by far. What a pile of crap.
With the new additions, Millennium Force, Diamondback, and Maverick the rides Griffon, Apollo’s Chariot, and Manta have been pushed off my list. Manta has actually fallen back quite a bit after the last time I rode it. Still an absolutely fantastic ride and the pretzel loop still stands as the single most intense coaster element I’ve ever experienced.
Beast and Top Thrill Dragster do not make my top 10 list. They are both exceptional rides that I can’t wait to experience again, but they did not connect with me on a level that puts them on this list. I have a feeling Beast at night *might* change its list status. Also, I found all the criticism I’ve ever heard about GateKeeper to be a load of crap and thought the ride was absolutely fantastic.
Definitely a highlight of this month has been making it to 100 credits. As of writing this, I have now ridden 110 different coasters. I am looking forward to see what new rides I get on next. Crossing my fingers I can make it out to Six Flags Over Georgia and Wild Adventures before the end of the season. That'd be a whole lot more coasters to ride, and might change this list all over again.
Okay so, just like last time, the list I've written up below features both wooden and steel coasters and is pretty much in a constant state of fluctuation. I like all of these rides very much and the order they're presented in changes when a coaster ride impresses me enough or makes me re-evaluate where it should stand on my list. I just do this for fun, so the order isn't really that important. With each coaster, I've written a little snippit of why the coaster falls on my list. I also include the make, model, park the ride is located, a link to the RCDB page of the ride, and a link to a front seat POV.
The only rides on this list I have not been on this month are Thunderhead and Storm Runner.
The list:
#10) Millennium Force – Intamin AG – Gigacoaster – Cedar Point – Sandusky, Ohio – RCDB – POV
-One hell of a rush. That sums up this roller coaster better than anything else. Plummeting down the 300 foot drop and speeding through overbanked turns and airtime hills at 93 miles an hour is just breathtaking. That being said, I still can’t help but feel disappointed with this ride. Based on many positive comments about this ride I expected it to be much more than it is. This ride isn’t even g-force intense in the slightest (I rode in the back row), with the most intense moments coming in at the end of the ride (the small airtime hump and the small overbank). This coaster is all about the first drop and the wild sense of speed, which to me it pulls both off incredibly well.
#9) White Lightning - Great Coasters International - Wooden (Out and back) - Fun Spot America - Orlando, Florida - RCDB - POV
-This coaster really is special to me. I’ve been on it 105 times so far and it still stands out as an incredibly fun ride, just as fun as the first time I rode it. I have even had the pleasure of riding this ride in my fursuit, and that was absolutely unforgettable. Its short height is deceiving, as this ride is fast and absolutely hauls through its course. The airtime on the double up and double down is just fantastic, and the crazy 90 degree turn-around is wild. From the drop to the ending breaks, this is one exceptional ride and among the best in Florida.
#8) Nitro - Bolliger and Mabillard - Hypercoaster - Six Flags Great Adventure - Jackson, New Jersey - RCDB - POV
-This ride remains one of the most solid rides I have ever been on. The helix is the best one I’ve ever experienced on a B&M coaster and there is so much floater airtime on this ride you’re hardly in your seat. So why did it fall on my list? Diamondback has overshadowed it as my new favorite B&M hypercoaster. Regardless, this is a must ride and re-ride every time I go to Six Flags Great Adventure. Such a fun ride.
#7) Kumba - Bolliger and Mabillard - Sit-down Looping - Busch Gardens Tampa - Tampa, Florida - RCDB - POV
-The more I ride this ride, the more I enjoy it. I’ve gotten riding in the back with little-to-no headbanging involved down to a science and no row is more intense than the back on this ride. I am still floored at just how fast this thing plows through the zero-g roll and the cobra roll. Zero-g rolls are my favorite inversion and the one on this ride is absolutely fantastic. Oh, and the helix at the end is fucking ridiculous. Still to this day it is hands down the most intense B&M and one of the most intense coasters I’ve been on.
#6) Diamondback – Bolliger and Mabillard – Hypercoaster – Kings Island – Kings Mills, Ohio – RCDB – POV
-I fully expected to enjoy this ride. I did not expect to enjoy this ride more than Nitro or Apollo’s Chariot, the other B&M hypers I’ve been on, but I sure as hell did. This ride has the most intense airtime I’ve yet to experience on a B&M. Like the others, the vast majority of it is floater air, but several times during the ride there is some ejector air thrown in. Also unlike Nitro’s forceless hammerhead, Diamondback’s hammerhead is much more forceful and fun. The best seat on this ride is in the back row, and the drop into the splashdown in that seat is just fucking awesome. The only smudge on this ride is that it rattles a lot (Especially the bottom of the first drop and the approach to the hill after the hammerhead). I can’t knock points off it for that because despite being slightly annoying at first I found it easy enough to ignore. Oh, and I found the new style B&M hyper train seating arrangement to be quite wonderful.
#5) Thunderhead - Great Coasters International - Wooden (Twister) - Dollywood - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - RCDB - POV
-Want a wild, out-of-control feeling on a roller coaster? Ride this ride. The speedy twists, turns, and drops on this ride are absolutely nuts. The station run-by remains one of my favorite moments on a coaster, ever. This ride is not even slightly unpleasantly rough despite being such a twisty wooden coaster. I love the feeling of speed as this ride blasts through its entire (well-paced) length.
#4) Storm Runner - Intamin AG - Accelerator (Hydraulic Launch) - Hersheypark - Hershey, Pennsylvania - RCDB - POV
-Now get ready, here we go. Just hearing those words gets my adrenaline pumping. This ride blasts off, going 72 mph in just two seconds flat and rushing up a top-hat element, much like other accelerator coasters. Unlike the massive accelerators like Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster, Storm Runner is much more than just up and down (as good as that may be). Here we see a much more thought out (and at parts, insane) layout. The hangtime on the immelman inversion is top-notch. The heartline roll / flying snake dive one-two punch is just fucking insane, and is one of the best moments on a coaster I’ve ever been on.
#3) Montu - Bolliger and Mabillard - Inverted - Busch Gardens Tampa - Tampa, Florida - RCDB - POV
-The Egyptian god of war hops up on my list for two reasons. One, I just can’t get enough of this ride as many of the elements are just pure brilliance, and two, I just haven’t been on Storm Runner in a while. The batwing inversion and the corkscrew over the wall I have a feeling will stay among my favorite moments on a coaster, ever. The first drop on this thing still to this day takes me by surprise just how amazing it is.
#2) Maverick – Intamin AG – Blitz Coaster – Cedar Point – Sandusky, Ohio – RCDB – POV
-My new favorite steel coaster. This ride seems like the ride designers spazzed out and pasted so many different coaster elements together and just saw if it worked out. My goodness yes it does. This “Frankenstein’s monster” of a coaster is a damn masterpiece. The pacing is nearly perfect and the intensity is fucking relentless. This is far above every other ride before it on this list. This ride includes ridiculous directional changes, insane airtime, an incredibly fast second launch, a beyond-vertical drop, and two perfect inversions. Like I said, this ride has pretty much everything. The launched “lift hill” at the beginning and the crooked hills at the end are the most WTF and unique parts of this ride. I don't know what part of the ride I enjoyed most, other than all of it.
#1) El Toro - Intamin AG - Wooden (Out and back) - Six Flags Great Adventure - Jackson, New Jersey - RCDB - POV
-This ride is still hands down my favorite coaster I have ever been on. Everything on this ride is so good, I can hardly believe it. The ejector airtime and intensity of this ride is so incredible I can’t say anything other than by the time the ride is pulling into the station I am laughing hysterically at just how much fun the ride was. The hill near Rolling Thunder has such ludicrously forceful ejector airtime I don’t have the words for just how fucking awesome it is. I have tried many times to hold my hands up for the entire ride but I simply cannot. No, I am not putting them down to grab the restraints. This ride is so relentlessly intense that my hands are thrown down at times, whether I want them down or not. I fucking love this ride.
In related news,
has made an FA page for coaster fans, 
coasterenthusiastsoffa. I am a co-moderator with him, and while I don't know exactly what to do with it yet, I want to help make it something a little fun for furry coaster lovers out there. I know there are a lot of you.
2. Intimidator 305
3. Montu
4. Balder
5. Insane
6. Dragons, Red/Fireball
7. Diamondback
8. Millennium Force
9. E. Everest.
10. White Lighting.
Personally, I love myself a good themed + thrilling ride. Which explains some of my top 10. This was a tough list to make, since I had to go back though the rides I've been on, and think... "Did I really like that." So a lot of the rides on my list I've ridden recently.
Ice has it's benefits. The B&M Whip on the cobra roll would always kill me, that's all. :)
That it the new Goliath woodie opening, that thing is set for THREE inversions.
I've heard mixed reports about Hades. Some say it's a rough piece of crap, some say it's a blast.
Oh well, I need to start paying more attention I suppose