Popular coasters that you just didn't "get"

Yeah, my first ride wasn't until 2006.

Which leads to a question. How do people rate their individual coasters in their track records? Is it according to how a coaster ran in its heyday, or in its most recent incarnation? I rank and rate my credits per the last few rides I had on the coaster, not hearkening back to 'yesteryear'. Which is why Mean Streak has plunged in my personal TR, while Predator at DL has risen significantly this year.

I rank based on best out of however many rides I got. If I got a few decent rides, and a few crappy rides, I tend to go with the best. But if it consistently underperforms in the future, I will downgrade it accordingly.

I rode Ghostrider in 2005 during Solace and loved it, haven't ridden it since. I rode Raging Bull opening year, loved it, haven't ridden it since. I rate them both pretty high, but I doubt I will when I ride them again based on what most people say about them now.

I ran into those questions when ranking my list on CBuzz recently. I put Dominator at Geauga Lake and Dominator at Kings Dominion next to each other, but put GL first because I had better memories of it at the former location (partly because it was over a lake, and partly because I'd ridden 80 or so fewer coasters back then so it probably seemed better at the time).

Similarly, I've only been to Kennywood once, so I had to rely on my previous ranking of Phantom's Revenge and the Racer to supplement my actual memory of the rides.

Incidentally, I have 109 credits here, but 112 on Coaster Counter because of the difference in how they count racers. Once upon a time I wanted my 100th credit to be something "special" like I-305 (which, after riding it, I was glad I hadn't done) -- but instead it ended up being Dominator 2.0. Which kinda drove the point home that my "100th" credit was rather arbitrary anyway due to different counting methods, since some people wouldn't have counted it the second time.

I *tend* to rank based on most-recent rides...which means that Ghostie won't find itself anywhere NEAR my top-10.

Of course, RoS/Bizarro in New England "gets a pass" on the recent, ummm, errrr, downgrade because I haven't ridden since the Bizarrification effort.

Agreeing with Ensign - my theory goes like this - what would I want someone new to anticipate based on my last experience with said ride?

Exactly. I think a ride's rating ought to reflect its (closest to) current reality. Which is why Beast isn't even in my top 25. Now if there were a different track record, let's call it the "idealized" track record where coasters were rated according to the best experiences they ever provided, that could change the rankings significantly.

That works if you get to ride a coaster regularly, or at least once a season. It gets tougher when you try to rank coasters based on park visits from years ago. My "latest" rides on Magnum, Mean Streak, and Gemini were in 1994. I just didn't get to any of them when I visited last year. OK, one of them I didn't want to get to.

Well, in your case, the closest experience to current reality you have with those three would be...1994. Whaddaya gonna do? :)

kRaXLeRidAh said:
^ Ah. You must have ridden GhostRider after its glory days had long passed. Anybody that rode the thing in its heyday (1998 - early 2000's) will tell you how excellent it was.

Meh. I rode it every Solace I went to from 2002-2005, and it sucked every time.

OK, I guess it didn't SUCK, it just wasn't near as good as the Holiwoodies.

Ensign Smith said:
Well, in your case, the closest experience to current reality you have with those three would be...1994. Whaddaya gonna do? :)

It does make it more difficult to rank them, especially in Mitch's poll, where I have to compare, did I like this one from 1994 better than the one I rode in 2009? But even I know my rather favorable impression of Mean Streak from so long ago is probably no longer accurate.

Everyone who has any kind of extensive list of credits must run into the same problem. All my rides on Desperado were on one day back in 1998. It was amazing then, and because the coaster is frozen in time in my mind, I continue to rank it very highly even though a lot of folks don't seem to see it so charitably.

I was 8 years old in 1980 when I rode Demon at Marriott's Great America in California. I thought it was the most awesomest thing ever. I still have fond memories of that ride even though I have not been back since. I know that if I rode it again that I'd undoubtedly think it was a POS, but in my personal experience it was great.

I never ranked coasters until I sorted my track record here, and I'm sure that Demon's position is still artificially inflated.

I think the whole point should be to rank/rate your experience, not what the consensus thinks the experience is.

Otheriwse I'd be forced to lower my ranking/rating of rides I like that people generally don't and vice versa.

If that means your decade old ride is the only experience you have, then you'd be ranking your experience correctly by putting it in an "incorrect" position.

If those childhood memories are strong enough to make you still think you love a coaster that's far past its prime, then fine. Your experiences make that coaster more important to you.

Listing coasters a certain way because you're 'supposed' to eliminates the purpose of ranking them.

Your experiences make that coaster more important to you.

Which is why Swampfox is my #3 wooden coaster :). But with it, I have had a few amazing rides, and never a bad ride. If it were to get really bad, and I rode it every year and it sucked from here on out, I'd re-rank it. Much like I have with other coasters over the years. I try to rank based on the best experience, but when the experience keeps going down, so does the ranking.

Thankfully my last few rides on Villain were great, and it kept it's ranking, but my last ride on Big Dipper was terrible, but since that was one out of a few great rides, I didn't feel the need to lower it's ranking based on one bad ride that just happened to be the last time I'll likely ever ride it.

Tekwardo said:
...but my last ride on Big Dipper was terrible, but since that was one out of a few great rides, I didn't feel the need to lower it's ranking based on one bad ride that just happened to be the last time I'll likely ever ride it.

That's a good example of what I was getting at.

You rank it based on your entire personal history with the ride, not just on your last experience with it.

(that sounded dirty)

We agree on enough stuff. I think we should start the Gonch & Beaver podcast.

Like a really bad morning radio team:

"Your home of Gonch and The Beaver in the morning!"

I only read the first page of this thread. Didn't have time to go through all 12 pages. SO, I jumped to final.

Regarding the whole "I don't get it" mentality, It is sad that we can be disappointed by a ride that gets such rave reviews due to a bad day. People that know me, know I am a Magnum whore. I will admit there are days that it does not run its full potential and can see why someone might get that thought after riding it.

For me, a couple that pop in my head that were one day visits and didn't get were Desperado and Coney Island Cyclone. Now a couple of coasters that I just don't get (that I have been on numerous times different trips), are Alpengeist and Raging Bull. These coasters never perform for me. I get off these rides asking myslef "what's all the fuss about?".

"Beaver and The Gonch. BEAVER AND THE GONCH. BBBBeaver and the Gonch! Weekday mornings on WXYZ!"

Beaver and The Gonch does have a better ring to it.

It sounds a little more risque'.