Kennywood Racer: A Gem or a Bust?

It's called FUN! that's all that counts. The hand slapping as you go through turns adds charm to the ride. I'd go with gem. The charm of the station and the crowd getting into the race aspects as groups split between the two trains being the main reasons I say gem.

See, I will agree with you there, millrace. The numbers are meaningless (as further evidenced by the discrepancies of the 0-10 thing in this thread).

Two things:

1. The Griswold scale. A few still use it. While it does reduce a ride to a number, it has clear meaning. Rides are rated from -3 to +5 with 0 being an "average" experience. It's pretty clear what someone's impression of the ride was using that scale.

2. Mitch's poll is perfect for someone like you (or I, even) who group loosely into general categories. You don't have to rank 1,2,3,4,5...etc. - it works just as well if you score all of your 'must ride' coasters as a "1", all of the 'might ride' coasters as a "2" and all the 'won't ride' coasters as a "3" - in fact quite a few voters use similar methods.

I personally tend to break it down, just for an bit of entertainment. Even within my "A" category of rides that I love, travel for and power ride, I like to think that if forced into a choice, I could choose to ride one over the other. Just something I enjoy doing once a year.

And I agree that polls are generally meaningless. Well, that's not entirely true. The only poll I pay much attention to is Mitch's, even then my list differs in many places from the final results - but to me that's the point. All of our 'favorites' are going to be different. What the poll does is identify general trends. I find it interesting to see what enthusiasts in general are going ga-ga over.

Just a general interest thing really. I dig parks and coasters and such, so why wouldn't I be interested in one quick list that expresses the general opinions of those who share my enthusiasm?

I do see what you're saying. Typical enthusiass-type behavior wirh spreadsheets breaking each ride into various elements and creating a final 'ranking' is pretty lame. To me, it's almost equally lame to say "I just like coasters" - well, duh! I fall in the middle and it works for me.

Whether that makes the lame cancel itself out or ends up doubling the lame is up for debate though. :)

*** Edited 8/22/2005 6:00:36 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

I've been told I should try the Mitch poll and I'll admit I looked it over but it seemed pretty daunting and I really couldn't bring myself to go through with it. Although it would force me to sit down and make a coaster list. I think I remember everything I've ridden with the exeception of some smaller coasters I was on when I was very very young.

As for the results. I looked at them once too and it didn't tell me much. Number 1 or number 10 or even number 23 don't matter to me. Chances are I (a) haven't ridden it, (b) rode it but not the ones near it in the rankings. Besides, I bet I could predict a good portion of the top 25 just going by comments I hear. I wouldn't get the exact order but I bet I could do it. Maybe I'll try that someday and see how I do.

What is daunting about Mitch's poll are his instructions! They need a serious re-write because the poll is really easy to take and if you keep your first year's ballot all you need to do in the following years is add the new coasters you've ridden and re-rank as needed.

I've been doing his poll since 2000 and since that first year I now don't spend more than 5-10 mins completing my ballot.

millrace - if you want my easy-as-pie directions let me know ;)

mOOSH

edited, thanks to millrace! *** Edited 8/22/2005 7:12:56 PM UTC by Mamoosh***

Easy-as-pipe? Gah! *Nobody* understands plumbing!

d'oh! That's what I get for typing too fast. Edited and fixed...thanks, Millrace ;)

When Moosh talks about "easy pipe" he doesn't mean plumbing. ;)

Amen to the "category" ranking approach. I throw a 6th on there of the 5 rides that are my all time favorites in the list. When Mitch's polls come around, I look at each category and try and figure if the two coasters were sitting side by side and I could only ride one, which would I pick? That one gets the higher rank. If I can't pick, they get the same. So, in my list of like 100ish steel coasters, I only hit like high 30s in rank.

I dunno, works out for me. And yes, they're in a spreadsheet, but only cuz that's the easiest way to keep track and not have to do a lot of handwriting ;)

Edit: Oh, by the way, Racer's a great coaster, but not an every time (a "C" for me). Airtime on the last hill in the last seat (turned around for maximum effect, but that's another argument) rivals Jackrabbit's.

*** Edited 8/22/2005 10:33:07 PM UTC by Impulse-ive***

Shut up, Gonch! ;)

You love me, Moosh. :)

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Impulse-ive said:
When Mitch's polls come around, I look at each category and try and figure if the two coasters were sitting side by side and I could only ride one, which would I pick?

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Way to take the words right out of my mouth! So much so that I was saving that little nugget for further discussion purposes. Now I got nothing.

When Mitch's polls come around, I look at each category and try and figure if the two coasters were sitting side by side and I could only ride one, which would I pick?

That was how I ranked my coasters. I just assumed they were all in one park, and that I was riding them under the best circumstances, which one would I ride first, which one next, etc.

Ranking means little to me, I just did it for fun. Currently, Phantom's Revenge is my favorite coaster. If Swamp Fox, Thunderhead, RoS @ SFA, and a couple others were right there, I would ride them all, but I'd head to PR and SF first and second.

Yea, if Mitch's came up tomorrow, I only got 1 #1 in each category, Lightning Racer and SRoS DL, but after that, there's like 4 #2s given out, 6 #3s, etc. I think a much better "ranking" than anything!

And who here isn't the least bit surprised that Gonch, Tekno and Impulse-ive agree on things? ;)

It's probably better that the three of us have never been in the same place at the same time. :)

Gonch, Tekno, Impulsive, and mOOSH, you mean.

No moosh. They dont want to include you in their group. Your not as important. ;)

True...good point.

No, we're afraid of including him because we don't want him to drug us and then forget what happened ;).

Yeah, at this point I'm more afraid of meeting Moosh than anything.

Mostly because I talk the talk with him - when face to face I don't want him thinking I walk the walk. ;)

I might catch the gay and quite honestly, I don't have the fortitude to explain to my wife that I'm leaving her for some guy in California.

(the right people understand I'm joking)

No need to catch the gay, Gonch. Catching the bi is fine with me, too ;)

mOOSH - harmless

I was afraid of meeting moosh too. But I brought Backup, and made sure it was in a very public place (USH).

But then he didn't even try to hit on either one of us, and I was more disappointed than anything.