Voyage I only got one ride since we got their late, and I was still very skittish about riding anything that intense in the back seat. It would be hard for me to give an accurate opinion on it. One thing that did bug me is that the supposed twenty-four seconds (?) of airtime that got ruined early on in the ride when the lapbar stapled me. I might return next year to give a better opinion.
Kentucky Rumbler We got three rides on it and it reminded me of an updated Roar (the original). A little bit more airtime, and a more comfortable ride.
El Toro I only got one ride, but it's one ride I won't soon forget! It's just totally way out of control the whole time. The twister section is just insane. I agree that operations could be better and they need to work out that cable-lift which was giving them so much grief the day I was there.
The Italian Job Turbo Coaster I had only ridden the twin at PKI once at BeastBuzz, so it was a nice change of pace to ride it over and over again at the PKD ACE day on October 22nd. It's a nice family ride that'll appeal to both the young generation and the older generation. I just wish the seats had some padding.
Dark Rides Shooters
Gobbler Getaway-Holiday World The turkey-baster shooter was an absolute trip with the turkey sound being made everytime you pressed the trigger. It was fairly bright compared to most of these rides, and I wish there were more targets. Otherwise a great family attraction.
The Reese's Extreme Cup Challenge-Hershey Park The extra large targets and a "train" which did go up, down, and sideways made for a nice change of pace from your usual Sally ride. *** Edited 11/1/2006 9:27:25 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***
Expedition Everest, Animal Kingdom - I'm a big fan of Disney's heavily themed mountain coasters, and this one did not dissapoint. Fun, comfortable, re-ridable, and impeccably, immersively themed. It does take it a little while to get down to business, but the final forward section which to me is the "payoff" of the ride thrill-wise is strong enough to make Everest my favorite runaway mine train style coaster (if it would be considered a mine train). As I'm not a big inversion person, this easily made my top 20 steel. I loved the drops in the dark mountain. Night rides are a must, so if you are staying at a Disney resort, I highly recommend taking advantage of the evening Extra Magic Hours at AK, as the park is almost never open at night during regular operation (although it looks like the weeks before and after Christmas will be an exception)
Patriot, Worlds Of Fun - A nice surprise! While Alpengeist is my favorite of this type (in spite of having more inversions) due to it's incredible height, terrain, theming, epic nature, and relentless speed, there are lots of things I really liked about Patriot. It has a similar opening to the mirror image of BTR, but for my taste is a HUGE improvement. There is one fewer inversion, and the inversions don't DOMINATE the ride like they dominate a ride like Batman. Also, I don't recall any near grey-outs from overexcessive positive g's - another strength of this ride, in my book ;)
The straightaways between the early inversions give you more time to appreciate the speed, and the second half of the ride has some nice "swooping" moments where you can appreciate the "flying" aspect of the ride that often doesn't get developed to the fullest on other inverted multiloopers if all you are doing is entering one inversion immediately after exiting another.
At one point I counted THREE consecutive descents not interupted by an inversion,which for me is a good thing ;) (beginning with the exit of the Immelman, then the drop out of the spiral, and then the drop out of the camelback). Although this has a totally different layout than Great Bear, which I also really enjoyed, I'll remember both in a positive light for doing more with the inverted format that just sending riders unimaginatively through one inversion after another ;) A solid addition to Worlds Of Fun.
Italian Job, King's Dominion - An enjoyable coaster, more "fun" than "intense". My favorite part was the tunnel. I liked this better than the identical one at King's Island because King's Dominion was not assigning seats ;)
I am drooling over SFOG's Goliath, which I will ride whenever I get a SF pass again (possibly '07). This may surprise some that may remember me saying that I could generally take or leave B&M's, but that was BEFORE I had ridden one of their hypers (Apollo), a near-perfect symphony of airtime which exceeded my expectations and stole the show in my steel rankings by a surprisingly large margin - and I've now ridden at least one hyper by each hyper manufacturer.
If Goliath is even close to Apollo's Chariot in the airtime category, I expect it would make my top 2 steel, with the possibility of being my favorite (top 3 steel with the possibility of being my fave if I also get to ride Nitro)
I hope to ride Voyage in '07, which would probably be my favorite woodie.
Great Adventure is looking tempting for a visit in the near future as well, with the one/two punch of Nitro and El Toro.
Before the year's end, I expect to get on 2 more "new for '06" coasters - the junior at Silver Dollar City (at their Christmas event) and the junior at Sea World Orlando ;) *** Edited 11/2/2006 5:51:00 PM UTC by Frontrider***
The interesting new-for-this-year coasters I've been on are as follows (I'm excluding the obvious credit whore stuff):
- Black Mamba (Phantasialand)
- Cobra (Paultons Park)
- Crossbow (Bowcraft)
- El Toro (SFGAdv)
- Goliath (La Ronde)
- Goliath (SFoG)
- Italian Job Turbo Coaster (PKD)
- Kentucky Rumbler (Beech Bend)
- Opa (Mount Olympus)
- Patriot (Worlds of Fun)
- Pegasus (Europa Park)
- Ragondingue (Bagatelle)
- Speed (Oakwood)
- Stealth (Thorpe Park)
- SuperSplash (Plopsaland)
- Voyage (Holiday World)
- X Coaster (Magic Springs)
Of those, I'd say the top five for me (in order) were Voyage, Stealth, Black Mamba, Kentucky Rumbler, and (tied) the two Goliaths. Honorable mentions to Cobra, Crossbow and Pegasus for being really fun rides in the family coaster category.
Stealth is, incidentally, what Kingda Krap and Top Thrill Dragster should be (and yes, I've ridden both of them). It's exactly the right height to be thrilling without being uncomfortable, and the launch feels considerably more powerful. I do still prefer Storm Runner and Xcelerator, mind.
One trick pony award, or in this case a two trick pony, goes to Speed at Oakwood. A fantastic first drop and the air time hill from heaven/hell make for a great start that just seems to peter out after a bit. Shame. On a similar vein, El Toro really didn't do much for me.
The special complete waste of time award, however, goes to X Coaster, for being uncomfortable, slow to load, and not a lot of fun.
I develop Superior Solitaire when not riding coasters.
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