Mitch's Wood Coaster Poll - Results

Results

Voyage (#1) over El Toro (#2) 64 to 58. Closer than I expected.

Top 10:

1. The Voyage
2. El Toro
3. Thunderhead
4. Troy
5. Balder
6. Boulder Dash
7. Phoenix
8. Tremors
9. Hades
10. Thunderbird

You can get all the usual fun stats and facts on the results page.

I like that they're close. To me, El Toro is a better ride, but obviously it's a personal preference. The results definitely show how great both coasters are.

edit: He could really use a graphic designer to help him with his poll and the results. I'm a graphic person, so trying to decipher his all-text format makes my head hurt. :) *** Edited 12/7/2007 4:58:07 AM UTC by halltd***

I also think El Toro is overall the better of the two, but not by enough to make me care all that much that Voyage won. I'm really pleasantly surprised that Thunderhead kept it's footing in 3rd place. I'd been hearing lately that many felt the ride was overrated, but that certainly doesn't reflect in this poll. It's still my personal favorite wooden coaster.

At night, El Toro dreams its as good as Voyage. And then it wakes up, realizes it's hardly even a real wooden coaster, and is sad all day.

Interesting results. It's fun to compare a coaster's past history in the poll to its current rank. GhostRider dropped down to 35! Yikes!
*** Edited 12/7/2007 7:07:43 AM UTC by GoliathKills***

I will go out on a limb and say that out of those Boulder Dash and Hades are my favorite, followed by Thuderhead and Voyage.

And then Cannonball at Lake Winnie!

Just personal prefference as BD does a straight uneventfull bunnys all the way home. But thats no where near a top ten for me.

Thunderhead surprised me, While it has no WTH? moments the whole ride is intense and impressive *See TR in that forum*

I've yet to ride a Intamin, I reserve any coment on em until I do.

However I will say one certain Review site is having a major influence in this poll, Both in number of coasters worldwide ridden and its tabulation formula.

Chuck saying it's entirely possible that Theme park review has had more riders on the Euro and Jap coasters than the entire ACE organization

P.S. Im not knocking TPR, But looking at many of their tabulations it goes like 1. 2, 3, 40, 25,30 ect

This threads only serve to remind me that I have El Toro 3 hours from me and I'm still loathe to step foot in the park that it's located in. *sigh*

Maybe 2008 will be the year.

TPR showed that a certain numbers of votes were rigged just to drag down El Toro! One vote even has the person "judging it" to be number 107, behind rides like the William Grove Cyclone! What's the problem with those people? Is it cause El Toro is at a Six Flags park? That its not a "woodie"?

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Mamoosh said:
At night, El Toro dreams its as good as Voyage. And then it wakes up, realizes it's hardly even a real wooden coaster, and is sad all day.

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I haven't even been on the ride, but everyone I know says pretty much the same thing. It's barely a wood coaster in the first place.

^^^ I feel the same way. I live 90 minutes from the park but haven't been there since 2004- the year before Kingda Ka was built, yet every year I drive 2 hours to Lake Compounce, 2 1/2 hours to Knoebels, Hershey and Morey's and 6 hours to Kennywood. Go figure.

Interesting results, if only because I anticipated those coasters making the top 10, except not in that order and without Troy (which doesn't shock me because it looks like a flat-out awesome ride). I love how Phoenix manages to hang in there with all those younger kids- a true testament to the genuis of Herb Schmeck's design and the people at Knoebels!

*** Edited 12/7/2007 2:48:13 PM UTC by Rob Ascough***

^^ Not that you really "know" me, but El Toro is a woodie to me - without question. Just because it was engineered to be smooth, it still uses the same wood and construction technique as a traditional woodie. Intamin was just smart and used technology and engineering to make a better ride. Lots of people complain about woodies being rough, so they took out the rough part. Plus, it's a LOT easier to make the wood track structure in a factory than on-site.

Is Millennium Force not really a steel coaster because it was "prefabricated" and not welded on-site like it's little brother Magnum? That's basically what you're saying. Magnum was welded on site and is rough/outta control. Millennium was built in a factory, assembled on site and is smooth.

Regardless, it's still a wooden coaster. Maybe The Voyage isn't really a wooden coaster because it's entire support structure is steel? I don't ever see people arguing that?

As for my coasters ridden the only thing I would change in the top 10 is to put Hades infront of Thunderhead. I didn't care for TH as much, maybe it was having a bad day...

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Jeff said:

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Mamoosh said:
At night, El Toro dreams its as good as Voyage. And then it wakes up, realizes it's hardly even a real wooden coaster, and is sad all day.

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I haven't even been on the ride, but everyone I know says pretty much the same thing. It's barely a wood coaster in the first place.

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Unless you are blind or just the dumbest person on the planet you can see that ET is very much made of wood, in fact there is more wood on ET than on Voyage. How can you judge a ride that you have never ridden? There is no woodie in the world with a better first drop!

It's a different kind of wood coaster but it's still a wood coaster so it deserves to be ranked as such. Gemini is ranked as a steel coaster, is is not?

Seems to me that Intamin is taking the art out of wooden coasters. I have no doubt it's a kick ass ride, but personally prefabbed track and riding on poly should be saved for steel.

Tim, Magnum was fabricated off site, but the joints were welded on site (like all Arrow at the time). Not to mention it was built in 1989, 11 years before Millennium Force. Technology has changed a bit since then.

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GoliathKills said:
Technology has changed a bit since then.

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That's my point. Technology has changed and wooden coasters are built using different methods now. There's really no difference besides one being made from steel and one being made from wood.

Glad El Toro is bubbling up to the top spot. In time....in time...

Troy and Thunderbird? Never heard of those two.