Credit whores

Just wondering who rides every roller coaster they can possibly get on just to get the credit, or do you only ride coasters that you know/think you will enjoy?

Yesterday I was at a small seaside park in the UK and they had a Zyklon and a Big Apple there. I had already ridden the Zyklon (and never like them) so I didn't ride, but I thought should I ride the Big Apple because I haven't been on that particular installtion - it was going to cost £2/$3 so I skipped it. So I actually went to a park and didn't ride anything. (It was free entry and pay-per-ride)

Am i no longer a coaster enthusiast if I don't ride every coaster? Am I just neurotic, or have a I got coaster withdrawal guilt complex.

I ride every coaster I can at least once, but it's not simply for the credit. It's because I like roller coasters. Period.

And I can't think of a time that I went to a park that HAD any type of a coaster and failed to ride at least one, except for the Seaside Boardwalk here in NJ ($5-7 per ride)

Grant, we're going to have to ask you for your card. Please pack your fanny pack and go.
I am the whoriest of the credit mongers, which is what causes me to go to places like Darien Lake and spend a good part of my day standing in long lines for a lap on standard production model coasters. But... gotta do it.
It also causes me to look like a fool as the only adult squeezed into a kiddie coaster. What's worse is the pitiful begging you'll hear from me when the attendant enforces the height restriction, and once again I've failed to bring a kid with me. But they don't understand! I need it... for my list...
Do you know there's a coaster at my home park, Kings Island, that I have yet to ride for that very reason? Grrrrrr...
But the absolute worst thing happened to me when I visited Six Flags Great Adventure for the first and maybe only time. It was in the spring and the park wasn't very busy. So I spent the day riding all the coasters multiple times, and experienced great satisfaction as I ticked off each new ride. It wasn't until I got back to Ohio and I was showing (read: irritating) my partner the park map and all the great new rides I'd gotten, and there it was. Dark Knight. What? WHAT? How did I miss it? No, HOW DID I MISS IT.???!!? I had a park map with me all day! I should have known! Oh, if only I hadn't spent so much time on Nitro and had just gone around the corner... I would've seen it! Oh, coaster gods... WHY MEEEEEEEE?
When Jim was finally able to pull me away from the open window, he muttered something about me needing help. Maybe. But I love my list...

As long as I don't have to bum a kid, I'll ride it. (And on rare occasions, I'll wait around and bum a kid). I've gotten decent rides on even the worst and most cloned models (boomerangs and SLC's) so I always want to give it a try "Just to see." That said, I won't go out of my way to get to a park that had coasters I know are just credit laps. After you get above a couple hundred, a few more here and there isn't going to to much for your enthusiast cred, either way.

I have photos of nearly 430 coasters on my website.

My track record is in the 330 range.

That says I skip approximately 1-in-4 of the coasters I come across. I suspect I'm the least whoringest enthusiast around.

If I don't have to borrow a kid to ride, I'll ride. If I miss a clone, I'm not bummed (but usually only skip if it's down or closed and I don't get to ride). If I'm with a group that has a kid, then I'll usually ride.

I try to ride the little kid coasters at least once just to put it on my list. Sometimes, I have been pleasantly surprised at how much fun a kiddie coaster has been. Other times, I have been pretty disappointed. But the point of riding a kiddie coaster for me is to be able to say, to myself, that I rode it.

Not riding a particular kiddie coaster at least once would make the ride a mystery to me. I would always wonder what it was like. Most of the time, after riding a kiddie coaster, I will ignore it on my return trips to that park... That is, unless I enjoyed it enough the first time. The Vekoma roller skater coasters come to mind.

Some parks have actually let me ride the kiddie coasters without a kid even though park restrictions said I couldn't. A guy from Waldameer actually escorted me to the kiddy coaster and told the attendant I could ride which I thought was really nice, and I think Kennywood did as well.

I think at Kings Dmonion i had to ride with someones kid, and two other of my mates did as well - i felt sorry for the kid having to ride three times with three unknown adults.

I poached a kid at Carowinds once. I don't think you have to at Kennywood, but I don't have that credit. I wish more parks would open their kiddy credits during enthusiast events, because I actually do enjoy many of them, but I'm not going to go thru the trouble most of the time. I missed out on Knott's kiddy. I know Carowinds typically opens theirs up for events too.

I've never borrowed a kid. I rode the ones I could, though not always, as credits aren't that important to me. I skipped the kiddie coasters I wasn't allowed to ride prior to having my own kids, and now I've ridden a few with my son.

I've also skipped some adult coasters at parks where time was limited, but most of those have been clones. I didn't ride Flight of Fear, Invertigo, Beastie, or the kiddie coasters at Kings Island, since I essentially have the same ones here.

I probably would have been better off if I skipped Son of Beast, too.

Two things prevent me from riding stuff. One is long lines. I just don't have the patience anymore. The second is that I have a child. These two things combined meant that I only got on two of the coasters at Silverwood (one of them being the kiddie coaster). I still had an OK time.

I've taken crap from enthusiasts I've been with because I won't ride kiddie coasters. I think kiddie coasters belong to the kids and I'm ok with that.

I suppose I'm somewhere in the middle of the credit whoring spectrum. I do like to ride coasters for the "credit." I hate boomerangs, but would likely ride one if I hadn't before. But I can think of a few out there that I would pass on, too, despite losing the credit. I might be the only one around here who still has a fear of some coasters. :-)

I think I only started caring about coaster credits, though, when I started doing the podcast. Not only did I want to expand my experience with coasters at that point, but I also had a sense that some thought I didn't have enough "credits" to be able to do the podcast.

Btw, checking someone's track record to determine if their opinion is valid is completely lame. Don't ever be that person. :-)

I won't borrow a kid to ride. Although, I was with a group of friends once who had a kid that gave me a chance to get on Jr. Gemini, so I took the opportunity to do so.

Family and mid-size coasters get me to ride as well. I'm a coaster geek. They're fun and I enjoy it. The credit is just a bonus.

Having a kid has got me to ride many of the mid-size coasters (and many flat rides) that I may have skipped otherwise. She has got me to fall in love with rides like Iron Dragon and Wildcat all over again.

If I come across a clone of the previously ridden coaster that I didn't like, I'll ride the clone hoping it might be a better ride. If it's a good clone, of course I'll ride it, why not. So Yeah, I'll ride all the clones that I come across.

I'm not a subscriber to the Pokemon-esque approach to riding coasters. There are a handful of parks that I've been visiting for years that have one or two coasters (sometimes more) I still haven't and probably won't ride. Some (Disaster Transport) have been scrapped, others (Wild Izzy/Cheetah Chase) I've run into at more than one park. Wild Mice, Spinners, Junior/Family coasters, Bobsleds, (most) Mine Trains are the ones I usually don't bother with.

The worst is the aforementioned borrowing of someone else's child to work around maximum height restrictions, or when people start hitting up FECs that operate those Dragon coasters with the oval layout. That's just...weird.

I don't generally do kiddie coasters. It's pointless and a little inappropriate. Riding coasters to say you've ridden them is pretty stupid.

^ Welcome to Casterbuzz. Lol.

Tekwardo said:

If I don't have to borrow a kid to ride, I'll ride. If I miss a clone, I'm not bummed (but usually only skip if it's down or closed and I don't get to ride). If I'm with a group that has a kid, then I'll usually ride.

Ditto, on every point.

I've never "borrowed" a stranger's kid to ride an "Adults only with a kid" kiddie coaster... however I do take full advantage of the fact that we sometimes visit parks with my neices... one of which is turning 6 soon and isn't tall enough yet for the "big" coasters. I do draw the line at SMALL kiddie coasters when our neices are not with us... However, small coasters like Black Beard's Train (Great Adventure) and Catwoman's Whip (SF New England) are fair game.

Carrie J. said:

Btw, checking someone's track record to determine if their opinion is valid is completely lame. Don't ever be that person. :-)

Depends on the opinion though. If someone writes a TR and says "B:TR is the best invert in the world!!!11one" it means completely different things if all they have is a B:TR and an SLC or if they are Richard Bannister. That said, my current track record on this site is about 80+ coasters short of where I actually am because I'm too lazy to update.

While I do like to try everything once, it's more out of curiosity and experience than about padding the coaster count. On my New England trip last year, 3 out of 5 parks had Vekoma boomerangs, but I only rode one of them because I just didn't want to deal with the headbanging. Then two weeks ago I picked up one of those missing credits, and actually enjoyed it because I learned a better way to ride it (sit in the last car so you can anticipate the curves ahead, but are "leading" the train on the return trip).

And the only stand-up coaster I've ever enjoyed, Green Lantern at SFGAd, I probably would have skipped based on my dislike of Mantis if it weren't for my "try everything once" approach. Surprises like that are why I'm willing to do clones and kiddie rides that I don't expect much from, not to mention any number of flat rides I'd have thought would be boring.

No heartbreak if I can't get on that 50th Herschell Little Dipper clone, but I also don't take any sort of pride in *not* riding it. :)

bjames said:
I don't generally do kiddie coasters. It's pointless and a little inappropriate. Riding coasters to say you've ridden them is pretty stupid.

Wow.
Anyway, ok, I'll leave the Dragon Wagons behind. But I'm in the camp that believes that junior and family coasters can be a blast, and worth the credit. Especially if it's got an unusual layout or is historic. Camden's, Waldameer's, Cedar Point's, Busch Gardens, and SFoG's rides come to mind. If I get back to Knoebel's someday, I'll ride Kosmo's new ride. Not only does it look like fun, but it'll be a new ride for me. When I'm done I'll happily add it to my list of any and all coasters that I'm fortunate enough to have ridden. I'm pretty sure I won't feel stupid or pointless.
I ran into a family I know at Cedar Point one day, and little Sally was happy to take me on Jr. Gemini for my long awaited credit. I would never think of approaching a stranger in regard to borrowing their child just so I could ride.