The 2006 Coasters: Op-Ed

First off, I do not intend this to be a "vs." thread.

But as of late, from what my memory serves (not much), the new coasters mentioned most are El Toro, and of course, The Voyage.

What about Tatsu, the Goliaths (SFOG & La Ronde), Kentucky Rumbler, X-Coaster, Patriot,or any other coaster that is new for the 2006 season?

I would like to hear some descriptions or opnions of the later mentioned coasters. I believe there has to be at least 1 person per coaster that can give some info.

Has anyone here ridden all of them this season? Including ET and TV? *** Edited 11/1/2006 3:41:30 AM UTC by WildThingNative***

Patriot is a fantastic invert at Worlds of Fun in KCMO. It's very much in the Raptor-vein, but has a greater sense of speed, and seems like it gets closer to the ground. rcdb might confirm. :)

Some of the loops look out on large swaths of grass and the parking lot, and you feel like you could fly right out for hundreds of feet.

In addition, they have a dedicated line for "first-seat" -- so if that's your thing, you can definitely wait for it.

(it's also the first cedar fair coaster i've seen with an elevator for handicapped access. considering how elevated the station is, i think that's very considerate)

I still like Raptor better, but Patriot is near it in my heart. :) I'm darn glad I have to go back to WoF to get my CF season passes processed in April!

H

Raptor, Dominator, and Mantis all have the handicap elevators as well, to name just a few.

And my contribution to the discussion of the under-mentioned new-for-2006 coasters? Italian Job: Turbo Coaster at PKD is every bit as good as its other 2 counterparts. I loved that ride at PKI in 2005, and I still love it at PKD. *** Edited 11/1/2006 3:57:11 AM UTC by sirloindude***

I hit up Goliath towards the end of August.

I'm going chalk it up as one of my favorite hypers and easily my favorite B&M hyper. The hills packed a bigger punch than those on Apollo. The helix was a big surprise for me, but not as much as that sharp, over-banked turn back towards the direction of the station.

SFOG's Goliath is a fantastic ride, especially at midnight. :) Tons of airtime, some strong positive G's in the helix and a wicked "just wrong" moment as you hit the brakes. Also the placing over exisintg rides and structures, as well as extending outside the park and over the lagoon help in the visuals department. Excellent ride overall. Wayyyyyy better than Raging Bull and better than Nitro under normal conditions.

Personally, I find Patriot to be very tame and lackluster.

El Toro has some insane ejector air, but sadly it has several dead spots as well and feels too controlled with minimal lateral forces.

Voyage is the roxors!11! Plenty has been said about it.

Rumbler is a fun little ride, but suffers from the usual GCI over-engineered syndrom of minimal lateral forces and not as much airtime as I would like.

Opa is a typical spinning mouse with the flat hairpin turn sections and drops here and there. Depending on how you weight the car down with riders, you can get insanely spinny rides or very dull rides. But overall, a fun ride. I prefer the more freeform layouts of the other spinning coasters though. *** Edited 11/1/2006 4:24:59 AM UTC by Acoustic Viscosity***

Goliath at La Ronde is a one trick pony unfortunately. First drop is steep, but too short and then the 6 hills that follow with a basic turnaround is too repetitive... Airtime is some gentle floater and B&M went as far as installing a trim brake on the first return hill! But, to show how slow the coaster is usually, it doesn't activate half of the time...

The S turn is slow and the "overbanked" turn is not really an overbank. The little hop into the brakes is surprising and fun.

15 millions US for that... Wow!

Don't forget Black Mamba - truly a great coaster.

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Neuski said:
I hit up Goliath towards the end of August.

I'm going chalk it up as one of my favorite hypers and easily my favorite B&M hyper. The hills packed a bigger punch than those on Apollo. The helix was a big surprise for me, but not as much as that sharp, over-banked turn back towards the direction of the station.

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Except it's not a B&M :)

2006 Coaster Olympics

Division One: Wood Coasters

Gold Medal: :) THE VOYAGE :) Holiday world, Santa Claus, Indiana

Silver Medal: KENTUCKY RUMBLER Beech Bend, Bowling Green, Kentucky

Bronze Medal: EL TORO Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, New Jersey

Division Two: Steel Coasters

Gold Medal: EXPEDITION EVEREST Disney's Animal Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, Florida

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):) *** Edited 11/2/2006 7:37:36 PM UTC by Borntocoast*** *** Edited 11/2/2006 7:38:24 PM UTC by Borntocoast***

If you ignore the crew that has clearly taken horse tranquilizers and have had partial lobotomies, Tatsu is a great coaster. I've found all previous flying coasters (B&M and Vekoma) to be ok. Not great, just ok. Hardly top notch rides. Tatsu is a vast improvement. Is it in my top 10? No, but it's way up compared to any other, and it might be the best ever.....I don't see too many other flyers being built in the near future.

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Charles Nungester said:
Except it's not a B&M :)

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I know it's early, but could you explain?

Patriot is an awesome ride, and I'm not saying that just because it is at my homepark. It has to be the fastest inverted I have ever been on (or so it feels). It is getting up over 60 mph however the park will not openly say how much over 60 mph it is going.

Goliath at SFoG is a B&M Charles, I don't know what you were thinking -- maybe SFMM's? Anyhoo, it is possibly one of the best hypers I have ever been on. The helix drop hill is wonderful and it is just airtime packed. I like this course better than BGE's AC.

Voyage is a crazy woodie. I like it, but not as much as Legend. There are certain parts that I just love to death -- like the first 3 hills and then the triple down, but I don't care for the helix way out there or some of the run back.

Expedition Everest is everything Big Thunder Mountain wanted to be and couldn't. I take back every bad thing I said about WDI after riding M:S and about SGE. This ride is awesome and I was so happy that I got as many rides in on it as I did. 8 in one day! Loved it and wish it was closer so I could ride it more often *** Edited 11/2/2006 2:29:11 AM UTC by Swoosh***

I hit four of the new coasters this season.

The Voyage: Ummmmmm what to say that hasn't been said. It kind of hurt the others that I rode after it since this ride is a total package.

Kentucky Rumbler: I loved this ride. After being at Holiday World for two days this ride was a great change of pace. GCI builds rides that I think are more for the family than the thrill seekers and they do it well.

Tatsu: Best of class of the flying coasters I have rode. This ride is what a flyer should be. It works well on the mountain with great flying in and out of the trees. The placement of the pretzel later in the ride makes it more of a thrill to me. You get to soar around then a turn and WHAM forces galore during the pretzel. Wonderful job B&M and Magic Mountain.

El Toro: Other than the crappy way it is operated I think El Toro is just what the doctor ordered for Great Adventure. A wooden coaster that is smooth, has air even when stapled, and a great twister section. Only question other than operations is why does it die out before the brake run????

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Charles Nungester said:
Except it's not a B&M :)

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Actually, Goliath at SFoG is a B&M, as is the one at LaRonde. Perhaps you were thinking of SFMM's? Remember, this discussion is about new-to-2006 coasters, so SFMM's ride isn't eligible.

I found SFoG's Goliath to be absolutely amazing. Agreed that it could very well be my favorite B&M hyper. I believe I even raved about it as such in a podcast earlier this year.

I also agree with Richard on Black Mamba. Very nice little ride.

This has been a slow season for me this year. I only rode two new for 2006 coasters this year.

The first was Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Frankly, I was not expecting much from this ride. The coaster element did not seem like it would be all that interesting and I was not quite convinced that the theming element could be that good. I was completely proven wrong. The coaster element of the ride was a lot of fun. The theming is really what makes this ride, though. The yeti at the end was just...wow. Theming can make a good ride excellent and this is the coaster to set the theming standard to.

The other new coaster was Opa! at Mount Olympus. It is a spinning mouse coaster. I've done a few of these now and I have to say this one is the best of them all. The one at Great America is painful when spinning. The one at Animal Kingdom knocks all the air out of you when you hit the brakes. Opa was just plain fun.

Let's see, missed KRumbler - understandable, due to the weather the night prior to HWN...and missed Como Town's Screaming Dragon due to a heavy misting... ;)

Did get on Voyage, Toro, Everista, SFoG's Goliath, and Opa!

Voyage, hands-down, by a considerable margin. Has ALL the intensity I crave...and THEN some! Nonetheless, I was VERY pleasantly surprised by Toro (but still think SFGAdv is run by either evil people, morons, or both)...oh, wait, this isn't the political thread. :)

SFoG's Goliath proved that B&M *can* build an intense hypercoaster...I doubt even night-time ERT on Nitro and/or Bull could come close. The Fabio ERT had been the previous standard-bearer for B&M airtime, and was quite good, but not like THIS.

Everest was pretty much everything I expected...the theming is Disney-quality, but THE Yeti does need better lighting/timing to make the MOST out of the theming...

Opa! - meh, typical spinning mouse for me....guess I've been on too many of the Reverchon/Zamperla breed at this point...the M-S spinners and Gerstlauers are just plain better rides....IMO.

Tatsu? Not counting it out YET... ;)

I managed to successfully hit 4 new-for-2006 coasters (and will make it 5 with Expedition Everest in a few weeks), and have pretty high opinions of all of them:

El Toro -- Sure, it took me until August to actually get on the ride, but it was pretty rockin'. Incredibly smooth, with some of the most forceful ejector air I've ever experienced. Once they iron out the operations side of things, this should be a top-notch ride for this park.

Goliath (SFOG) -- In a fun park with a nice variety of coasters, this was probably the standout. I love the location (which is practically everywhere) and the way the hills interact with not only those patrons in the park but those waiting to get in is fantastic. Not my favorite B&M, but delightfully tasty in its own right.

Kentucky Rumbler -- I couldn't have been more glad that we decided to stop by Beech Bend because this was such a tasty little ride. Excellent speed, and never really has that "out of control" feeling, which is cool. A nice amount of laterals, and some really tasty airtime moments, all over the train. A little too short, in my opinion, but still fabulous.

The Voyage -- The coaster that will ruin every other coaster for me, period. The new #1 wood, the new #1 overall, the new gold standard in intensity, speed, and excitement. I said it earlier in the summer, and I'll say it one more time: believe the hype. It's that good.

YMMV, of course. :)

I definitely do not consider Patriot to be slow and unintense. I rode it around 30 times last season, and I found it to slightly gain speed and intensity as it broke itself in. I love the first drop, zer0-g and immelman, amazing beginning to the ride. The station flyover provides some great airtime too. In my opinion, it's a great ride overall maintaing speed until the end. *** Edited 11/1/2006 7:19:15 PM UTC by Raging_Bull***

I only managed to hit one "new for 06" ride & that being PKD's IJ:TC,for a ride of it's size & type I must say that I was certainly impressed & will no doubt be lining up for a lap or two on it next season.

Now let's see how long it'll take before folks are offering up RCT3/NL recreations of any of the new for 07 rides being announced....this seems to happen just about every year these days.

I got six laps on Goliath this year. It's by far my fave roller coaster INSTALLATION. I'm not positive it's my very favorite Beemer, but as others have said, the integration/interaction around the park is just awesome. Using the Scorcher for scale was brilliant, and seeing the lift hill coming down the highway into the park is just awesome. It's bigger than just a really sweet ride, it's a home run on every possible level.