New Entries in the CoasterBuzz Top 100

Storm Chaser debuts at #17.

I really, really love this ride and I'm excited for more people to try it out in the future.

Also interesting to note that there are three RMCs clustered at #15, #16, and #17.

Perhaps I need to look at the data there. It seems like a strange coincidence that someone from KK emailed me in the last week or two asking about how the rankings were calculated.

Well that's intriguing.

It is almost certainly worth a look, but it would be pretty hard to generate enough fake and experienced accounts to matter. Doesn't it have to have been ridden by half of the experienced riders? And isn't an experienced rider somewhere around 80 credits? That's a lot of fake data entry...

Yeah, it's easy to spot a track record that assigns 1's to the top coasters and 5 to those they prefer.

There's a part of me that wants to change the algorithm to cut out any ride with fewer than, say, 50 ratings, but that would dramatically alter the outcome. I don't remember enough from statistics to understand how to qualify what constitutes statistical significance, but I don't think 35 is enough when comparing to rides with 500+.

Having ridden the ride, I can honestly say it doesn't surprise me at all that it's so highly rated, and I know a lot of buzzers ride it this year. I'd err on the side of weird coincedence.

Pretty soon the top 20 is going to be mostly RMC if what I've ridden just this past summer is any indication. I really need to get to Cyclone and outlaw.

Bump.

Mystic Timbers joined the list this week at #20. That seems pretty accurate with my personal opinion of the ride. I believe it is the first "new for 2017" ride on the list, although there weren't a ton of new coaster additions this year.

Having ridden recent Cedar Fair/CGI's Prowler (currently at #33) and Renegade (#59), seeing Mystic Timbers debut at #20 feels about right.

Being a big fan of Renegade then tells me I want to visit KI this summer.

I absolutely think it's deserving. Also, it's pretty easy for a KI ride to make the list relatively quickly, because the park is well visited.

Fun! Looking forward to Mystic Timbers in August.

This puts KI into the rarefied air of parks with 4+ entries on the list. Others are Holiday World (surely, with every adult coaster they have on the list, they get the consistency award?), Cedar Point (7, soon to be 8), SFMM (5), SFGAdv (4), BGW (4 +1 defunct, another consistency award for them), BGT (4), Hershey (4).....did I miss any others?

Also interesting to note that 3 of KI's 4 were built since 2009. Not sure any other park can claim such an explosive rise in quality over the past 10 years or so.

matt. said:

Also interesting to note that 3 of KI's 4 were built since 2009. Not sure any other park can claim such an explosive rise in quality over the past 10 years or so.

I don't think there's any other park even close to their uniqie situation of being a large, established park owned by a company with both a reason to further expand & the money to spend that still hadn't hit all the enthusiast G-spots.

What other park was/is poised to build a B&M Hyper, B&M Inverted and a GCI?

Cedar Fair buying those parks created a perfect storm of sorts.

They are also a super central park for enthusiasts meaning that all their new rides qualify faster than, say, Canada's Wonderland.

And I *still* can't figure out why the Paramount Parks didn't add hypers. Diamondback, Behemoth, Leviathan, the two Intimidators, and Fury 325 all seem to be massive hits. Though, as a new CGA patron, I feel a little left out.

It really feels like the 90s and early 2000s KI leadership was just really trying to do counter programming to the other parks in the market. How long were Cincy folks (myself included at the time) dying for a traditional hyper or invert before Cedar Fair came along and did indeed build them? Ages.

But yeah.....FoF (in its original operating form), Tomb Raider, SOB, Invertigo / Faceoff, Backlot Stunt Coaster....just not a lot of investments in those years that I think anyone would really call a success. Without looking at the financials at least. Maybe they all did well at the gate.

Lord Gonchar said:

What other park was/is poised to build a B&M Hyper, B&M Inverted and a GCI?

Michigan's Advent... oh, never mind.

Mr. MAC is right. Under Paramount, the parks were subject to movie tie-ins that generally never made sense. (Let me pull out this broken record: seriously? Surrounding the Hurler coasters with areas themed to Aurora, Illinois?)

I've always thought that Paramount didn't "get" amusement parks. Guests buy into Mickey Mouse meandering the Magic Kingdom because the character is so tightly tied to the overall brand, and can be so easily adapted to the particular theme areas. Having Romulans wandering Rivertown at Kings Island, on the other hand, just made no sense. (And I am a major Star Trek geek.)

matt. said:

This puts KI into the rarefied air of parks with 4+ entries on the list. Others are Holiday World (surely, with every adult coaster they have on the list, they get the consistency award?), Cedar Point (7, soon to be 8), SFMM (5), SFGAdv (4), BGW (4 +1 defunct, another consistency award for them), BGT (4), Hershey (4).....did I miss any others?

This isn't a park that you missed, but it is interesting to note that SFGAm has only 3 currently. If I'm not mistaken, Batman: the Ride was #100 last week, but it got pushed off the list with the addition of Mystic Timbers meaning that it had 4 in the past.

slithernoggin said:

Having Romulans wandering Rivertown at Kings Island, on the other hand, just made no sense.

For sure. Probably one of the more cringe-worthy things a park has ever done. Especially because the 70s and 80s KI visual branding with the vaguely European / international / medieval kind of thing going on was so lovely. I still love looking at the vintage park maps and brochures from that era.

I sometimes question how Six Flags uses the DC characters in the parks. I've seen Sinestro walking around SFGAm, and I can't imagine that very many guests would recognize the character. But mostly, SF gets it right.

I agree, the visual branding back then was lovely.

Sinestro...he gets his powers from his radioactive nasal passages, right?