Mitch's coaster poll

My question is "How does Phantom's Revenge not rock?"

Yeah, I'm like that. I also have Phoenix at #25!

When did u ride phantom, this year or last? I heard from a few that it wasn't as good till they fixed the second hill.

RatherGoodBear said:
That brings me to my other point-- how much of the poll is voting from memory? It doesn't matter if you rode 2 or 200 coasters, if you didn't ride all of those coasters this past year, how could you accurately judge or compare the experience? Case in point for me, I visited CP in 2009, and finally got to ride Maverick and MF. But I didn't get to ride Magnum, Gemini, MS. etc. In fact, the last time I rode those was 1990-something, and Mean Streak was not a bad ride then. So how could I possibly compare coasters I rode this year to coasters I rode years ago? And, the rides I had years ago are definitely not representative of what those rides are today.

In either case, giving love to Mean Streak based on a visit from years ago, or just ranking it low even though I haven't ridden it in years just because everyone else says it sucks is not an accurate representation.

See, I'm totally ok with with voting from memory. More than likely votes are coming across a wide range of time frames for all kinds of voters.

It's more like judging the body of work as opposed to the latest effort. A once great coaster should be able to ride it's reputation to some degree - just like actors, athletes and - well, pretty much anyone who's done anything worthwhile.

Everyone can't ride everything every year - it's that wide range of experiences that gives the best and most varied "big picture' results. And that makes infinitely more sense to me than trying to figure out which rides are the best at any given moement in time.

(and I should have probably made some rant about 'overthinking it' again, but I'm choosing to live off the reputation built by older rants... ;) )

^^ I rode it twice in Oct. 2007, then again last October. Part of my initial bias also could have been the novelty of the terrain, since I'd only been to relatively "flat" parks before. Also, P'sR was a refreshing change from the woodies I so dearly disliked there on my first visit (I've since come around... except Thunderbolt).

LostKause said:
I agree with your line of thinking, RGB (as usual). I just have to ask, how in the world does someone go to CP and not ride Magnum? lol

I'll field this one.

Because Magnum sucks.

I'll disagree, kpjb. Maggie's one of my favorite coasters of all time. I love how it doesn't allow you to go with the flow; it takes control and forces you to do what it wants you to do. It's quite aggressive. To each his own...

See for me, Magnum is the reason I go to Cedar Point. I could care less if Millennium Force or Dragster were down that day. If Magnum isn't open, my visit to Cedar Point is ruined. And I have been there on a day when it was closed, but luckily it opened the following evening in time for CoasterMania ERT (around '98 or so if I recall).

And Thunderbolt is the reason I go to Kennywood. I actually skipped riding Phantom's Revenge its first season, because when my buddy and I got to the park on our trip that summer, Thunderbolt was still closed for reconstruction of the ravine drops (due to Phantom's Revenge construction), so we got back in the car and headed east to Hershey where we were blown away by the new Lightning Racer. Sadly that ride never ran that well again. I didn't finally make it back to Kennywood for Phantom's Revenge until PPP weekend 2006. I was anticappointed in my first couple of rides, but it grew on me and now it's right at the top of my steel coaster favorites (along with Magnum). I'd say PR is more consistently great than Magnum is, but Maggie trimless on a warm evening along the shore is as good as it gets on steel IMO.

And Bryan, it took me about 10 years of riding Phoenix for me to really get it.

I actually don't think Magnum sucks... I just think it sucks compared to the reverence it gets. I think it's a good example of 80s technology, but I really think that nostalgia is the true reason that people love it. If that ride was built as a new-for-2011 attraction, it'd never crack a top 10 list.

... and Travis, I think you're confusing it with Ben Roethlisberger.

That's interesting as I rank Magnum high on my personal list, and sometimes I wonder if I'm doing that because of nostalgia myself.

However- take into account the view of Lake Erie, combined with a great first drop and THE best set of ejector airtime hills on the planet and it's hard not for me to hold it in high regards.

The tunnels are underrated also :p

Magnum is just uncomfortable to me. Triangular hills?

But when I rode it for the first time in 1994 I thought it was the best thing ever.

I will say that, perhaps more than any other coaster, Magnum has risen tremendously in my estimation. Some coasters simply require you to know how, and where, to ride them to get the proper experience. As I gained this wisdom over the years, my appreciation for the ride grew too. Now it's a can't-miss attraction for me.

^ Ding ding ding. I was not a fan of Magnum until I discovered the middle row of the last car. I won't ride it anywhere else now. :) It's still not among my top 10 -- I don't really enjoy the abrupt throwing airtime on the last few hops -- but at least now I have a reason to ride it.

Incidentally, the middle row of the last car trick is wicked great on Blue Streak. I've had some truly amazing rides there the last 2 years, on such a seemingly basic coaster.

To answer LK's question: 1:45 wait for Maverick, overpaid for Chick-Fil-A, 1:00 wait for Millie, waited for some of our group to do the water rides. Then had to do Mantis if only for the credit, Maxair, then while we were there we as may well do Raptor. That about sums it up.

You just can't do everything in CP in one day, which is all we had. I'm due for another visit sometime this decade.

Magnum brings fond memories from my childhood and my first trip to Cedar Point, but I actually like it more now than I ever did back then (and I loved it back then). The triangular hills throwing me into the lap bar on the BACK row of the back car is exactly why I love it. IMO Phantom's Revenge does the same thing. it's a very violent ride and I can't get enough of it. The lap bar seems to not hurt people's thighs as much as Magnum's does, so I guess that's the difference.

RGB, when I worked at CP years ago, the reason the ride operator were supposed to hustle was so that people could ride everything in one day. That was a goal of the park. There are some busy days when it can't be done, especially when people don't get there early and stay late. Maybe something has changed over the years too.

It depends on the day. You can still get walk-on days at Cedar Point and you can still get the days where it's only possible to ride 4 or 5 major attractions. I've had friends back home tell me they want to visit Cedar Point, because it looks so great on TV, but they hear that the lines are always so damn long. It's not always like that and it's not that hard to pick the right days to go.

Last time I went I rode all of the adult coasters except for Wildcat and Maverick, including 5 or 6 laps on MF and 2 on Dragster. Along with that we did Power Tower and a bunch of flats. All that before the park closed at 7pm.

It all depends on when you go.

So when IS a good time to go to CP? Cause I'm thinking about heading back this year and I have not a clue. :)

You will be surprised but I have been to the last two Coastermania events and the first Saturday in June is not actually a bad day to visit Cedar Point. I rode TTD five times in a little under an hour around mid day. All the other coasters other than MF and Maverick (which had waits of about 45 minutes) were pretty much walk-ons. I also enjoyed Soak City with no lines on any of the water slides. It was quite nice.