Did Rougarou actually save Mantis?

This is what happens. Valravin is pulling the crowds from the other popular coasters. Case in point, SFGAm's new Metropolis ride is totally taking crowds away. Goliath and X-Flight had almost walkons at certain times during the Memorial day weekend.

Was there last weekend for CoasterMania; Raptor is running just fine. It's the best B&M in the park, and is probably my 2nd favorite CP coaster overall.

Other than Hulk 1.0, no B&M has been scrapped. Sure, there have been several relocations as parks close, but never has a decision been made to just scrap one. Even at Six Flags New Orleans, the place was left to rot, but the B&M invert got a home. To me, the fact that they are all still around speaks volumes about the quality and reliability of the rides and the value they bring to a park.

That's an incredible statistic that is often overlooked. We all know B&M builds for quality, but I think that is as strong a fact as any.

Even their first ride, Iron Wolf, didn't get scrapped when Six Flags Great America decided to get ride of it. Instead they moved it and refurbished it. And that is widely considered to be one of the least popular B&M's around. It is now living a new life as Apocalypse at Six Flags America. Iron Wolf is the only B&M to be relocated from a park that is still operating.

Chang was relocated to Great adventure (Riddler's revenge) from Kentucky Kingdom and that park is still operating, it was closed for a while I guess. Just throwing that out there.

When Chang was removed, Six Flags knew they weren't going to operate the park again and decided it was one of the only things they wanted for themselves. I count that as a relocation due to closure. The only relocation not due to park closure I believe is Iron Wolf/Apocalyse.

For those of you who follow me on Pointbuzz, I have become a Rougarou fanatic since this was announced! The ride is so much more comfortable compared to Mantis. The only part that is hard to fix is that one loop after the mid-course brake run. Other than that, Rougarou is awesome! 64 laps and going for more!

Mantis, in its waning days, had a short line due in large part to lack of popularity. While B&M's tend to be capacity monsters, the Flying and Stand-Up models still tend to take a little longer to load. Contrast that to Rougarou, a Floorless, which along with their Hypers (and surprisingly, most Wingriders) churn through the riders, and it's no surprise that it's almost always a short to non-existent wait. If I wasn't a fan of riding Floorless coasters in the front row, I could have pretty much walked on to all but two or three of my rides on Rougarou these past couple of years! It's definitely an improvement over Mantis, in my opinion, though I too am of the opinion that the second half of the ride is more "rough" than I care for.

The last time I went to Cedar Point, Mantis was still a stand up. But, unlike the other coasters in the park, waiting in line is more unpredictable. If you hit it first ride of the day, you might wait 20 to 30 minutes as everyone seems to make a mad dash for Mforce, and the line for that is over an our from the get go. People who don't want to wait spilled over to Mantis. But, the line for mantis could be over an hour and a half. But it was usually less than an hour mid day, or 30 minutes. The shortest line was right around 10 pm, or before the show by the iron dragon, as a lot of people go there to see that. I think I waited 15 minutes. But, in it's last years it was not a fun ride. Like Iron Wolf at Great America it was just painful.

I haven't been on Rougarou yet. But, my favorite part of mantis was always the twisty speed hill right after the incline loop. Do you still get a nice pop of air there with the new design?

Here's a theory... Did Valravn steal Rougarou's mojo? Rougarou was the "new" floorless coaster for 2015. Now along comes Valravn, also floorless... But Valravn is taller, faster, has steeper drops, and smoother than Rougarou. So Rougarou was somewhat made obsolete by Valravn.

Because too many fun coasters is bad?

It's a well-known enthusiast bylaw that parks can't have more than one steel coaster of the same (or similar) type.

Or that a rival park cannot build a similar gimmick coaster within a certain radius.

If KI builds a floorless dive machine and steals Valravn's mojo, I just don't know if I'll really understand the world anymore.

Call me weird, but even with the Introduction of Valravn, I like Rougarou slightly more just because it's a little longer.

An interesting thing I noticed yesterday seems to be the short attention span of the average park guest. Last year all you heard in line for Rougarou was how "OMG this used to be the mantis but too many people lost their balls so now you can't stand up on it anymore" or "OMG it's so much better than it was when it was the mantis because they added three loops and it's so much faster" (I am calling it "the mantis" rather than Mantis on purpose btw)

I didn't hear one person mention the Mantis era of the ride anywhere in the park yesterday. It's as if it has already been erased from the mind of the public. Even my dad (who has never ridden the ride in either incarnation) had to double check with me to see if Rougarou was "the ride that you used to stand on and we have the last rider buttons from" - and he has been visiting with me and watching me climb the lift since I was a little kid, and I'm 30 now!

How soon people forget about the testicular trauma. Never forget.

Rode it this weekend in the back row and found it to be a bore.

I think it is a great layout. It's got some unique elements on it for a floorless and is intense but comfortable. Then again, I was one of the crazies that enjoyed it as Mantis.