Unpopular Coaster Opinions

Is it unpopular to hate B&M inverts?

I rode Dragon Challenge the year before they tore it out, and I had to sit on a bench for about an hour afterwards in order to recover. Also rode Alpengeist a few years ago, and it was the same thing ... nearly ruined my day. I grew up loving Raptor, now I walk right past it.

My ride tolerance has gone way down over the past several years, so maybe I'm just old and feeble, but I remember thinking B&M inverts were incredibly smooth as a kid. Now I regard them as jerky nausea machines that aren't worth the time and discomfort.

1 - Lift hills that slow to a near-stop at the top add to excitement. Six Flags implemented that over the years, one change I really enjoy. I love the view and anticipation.

2 - (this is the cousin to #1) those 45 degree lifts, although intimidating-looking and badass in nature, really suck. It's not the shock of 90 degrees, but it's not shallow enough to get a comfortable view on the way up the lift. Add to it that these 45 degree lifts are usually taken fast.

3 - Completely flat sections of track, as well as meandering track, is fun and adds variety to coasters. I've heard coaster people complain about these areas: "they need to add a speed bump there." The flat sections of Alpengeist are great; the meandering of Raptor over the midway, you get it. Even the wind-down meandering after the last tunnel of Magnum. Great moments!

1. The demise of Vortex, Firehawk, and Son of Beast should be celebrated and those acting like that are really sad about it are just big crybabies.

2. Kings Island offers a slightly better experience than Cedar Point.

3. The Beast is still the greatest roller coaster of all time.

...And to comment about the speed of Beast, my first ride on it in the mid '80s was so fast, we zoomed halfway up the second lift hill.

LostKause said:

3. The Beast is still the greatest roller coaster of all time.

The Beast has so much sentimental value to me that it will forever hold a ranking of 0.5 in my top-10, along with (at the moment) two other coasters:

- Copperhead Strike at Carowinds

- Scorpion at BGT

LostKause said:

3. The Beast is still the greatest roller coaster of all time.

Yeah, I'll agree the Beast and Magnum are still the greatest roller coasters of their respective categories of all time.

I put a lot of weight on visual and sensory experience (the setting!), historical value and design at debut into my rankings. Everything ages. We don't know if an RMC in 20 years are gonna feel like Desperado. (Remember when that was a World's Best Coaster?) I'd bet an opening year ride on the Beast or Magnum (which I did not take) bested any experience out there today. It provided something completely unique in every way, nothing today has done that since maybe Dragster.

That's my vote for Ohio today.

LostKause said:

1. The demise of Vortex, Firehawk, and Son of Beast should be celebrated and those acting like that are really sad about it are just big crybabies.

Hey I liked Firehawk. I've ridden a few of the Vekoma flying coasters and had a great ride on them each time. They seem more interesting and fun than their B&M counterparts. Maybe I just had lucky rides - I know many people don't like them.

LostKause said:

...And to comment about the speed of Beast, my first ride on it in the mid '80s was so fast, we zoomed halfway up the second lift hill.

wink wink. Yes! The Beast meant everything to me as a teenage coaster geek in the 80s. It will always be special to me. Even thought my last fast-fast ride was during the 10th anniversary of the ride in 1989. Kings Island had an event for coaster clubs... it rained and snowed that day, but we still rode!

Manta and Tatsu are both excellent, but the Vekoma flyers are SO much better than any of the S:UF clones...when they're running. The first time I rode one (Batwing) and it went lie to fly at the top of the lift hill, I was completely in awe. I've had very few moments like that on a roller coaster in my lifetime (First "big" coaster: GASM GAdv., first hyper: AC, first lap on X) and that one moment makes me love the Vekoma flyer, despite their problems. It probably helps that I've never had trouble with the restraints or getting stuck or anything like that.

I've got some more now:

I concur that Magnum and The Beast are still great, and I also liked Firehawk (RIP).

I know a lot of people will complain that Magnum and The Beast are too rough, which I can understand. I even agree that the pacing of The Beast does leave some things to be desired, and Magnum has a few weird transitions. But at the end of the day, both of these rides are classics. In my opinion, airtime doesn't get much better than the second half of Magnum (though it is so violent that it can be painful), and the runaway-train-through-the-woods experience of The Beast is like very few other things, especially at night. Some of my favorite roller coaster memories are rides on The Beast through the pitch black darkness. Call me crazy, but I still think that Magnum is the fourth best at CP (after SV, Millennium Force, and Maverick), and The Beast is third best at KI (after Mystic Timbers and Diamondback).

I was also a fan of Firehawk, and its closure saddened me (though it certainly made sense from a business point of view). It might not have been the best flying coaster. (I would give that title to Manta.) Nevertheless, it was a flying coaster, in Ohio. I always enjoyed my rides on Firehawk, although I will admit that I did not enjoy the long wait in the hot sun, or the uncomfortable boarding/unboarding procedure and the face-up lift hill. There was a time not so long ago, before Banshee and Mystic Timbers were built, when I considered Firehawk the third best coaster at KI. (With the addition of those two rides, it fell to fifth in my ranking.) When it was announced that Firehawk would be closing, I was saddened but not really surprised. Firehawk was often the longest wait in the park due mostly to its inefficient loading/unloading, and it broke down frequently. Its reliability seemed to only decrease as time progressed, and it is a fact that the parts for that model of coaster are no longer being made. Between the constant downtime and lack of parts, it was only a matter of time before Firehawk's fate was sealed. I only visited Kings Island once in 2019, as opposed to the many times I visited in each of the prior few years. When I was there, I really could feel Firehawk's absence. It felt strange that one of the best rides in the park was gone.

I prefer Iron Dragon over The Bat.

This one really is just personal preference for me. It largely stems from the time when The Bat gave me a headache so bad that my head still hurt when I woke up the next day. I've never had a problem like that with Iron Dragon.

(Here's the big one:) The whole idea of Twisted Colossus makes me cringe.

I have great respect for Rocky Mountain Construction. They turned my least favorite roller coaster of all time, Mean Streak, into my favorite, Steel Vengeance. I have not ridden any other RMC, but I do think that most of them look like good or even excellent coasters. I do sort of have a problem with Twisted Colossus, though. This doesn't really have to do with the ride itself.

Most of the rides that RMC has converted have been bad Dinns (such as the aforementioned Mean Streak) or some of the weaker coasters that other companies built. However, from what I understand (I never got to ride it), Colossus was different. It was a good, classic, wooden coaster. As someone who does enjoy classic out-and-back woodies, it upsets me that Colossus was destroyed just so SFMM could hop on the trendy bandwagon of RMC conversions. I would almost compare it to how recording over the original master tapes of The Beatles, even if it were to record a song just as great or even better, would still upset me.

Never been to SFMM, but wasn't Colossus universally considered pretty average to terrible in its latter years?

I loved Colossus. Those giant, long and slow curves were a great place to enjoy the mountain/park views ... I just enjoyed being that high up on a big coaster. Yes, the trains were the typical squeaky Morgans.

Twisted Colossus nearly made me vomit. It was during their heat wave in 2017 and it seemed the ride was running faster than it should. It was cartoon fast, much faster than the videos I'd seen. I still rode it later and the next day, but that degree of snapping at that speed (and then slamming to a halt in brakes, twice) just isn't my idea of fun. I miss the old Colossus.

But yeah, most people love it. The only RMC I really had fun on is the one everyone complains is slow. Wicked Cyclone in Massachusetts. I like RMC from an engineering point of view, but as a rider they just don't translate to fun for me.

Wow. I did not think Wicked Cyclone was slow at all.

1) Parts of the Enthusiast community seem determined to be unimpressed, and spend too much time being negative. We are all here because we love roller coasters! I find it wearisome when enthusiasts spend time complaining about rides that don't live up to some fantasy standard ("new ride" is going to be lame compared to "other ride" etc.). Everyone is welcome to their opinions, but let's be a positive community! Of course I don't mean to say we can't dislike some rides, or we can't disagree, but ride bashing can get toxic if we aren't careful.

2) B&M Stand Ups are fun, and I don't find them uncomfortable. I rode Mantis more times than I can count, and only ever had one bad ride.

3) Universal relies too much on hybrid simulator attractions. Spiderman and Harry Potter the Forbidden Journey are fantastic. Transformers and the new King Kong crossed the line for me. Too much simulation, not enough real scenery or animatronics. I thought the old King Kong was way more fun than the new one.

4) I agree that vest restraints are more comfortable than OTSRs.

5) I love a good Arrow Looper. Sure you need to ride some of them defensively, but that's part of the thrill. These rides are from a different time, and they offer a different kind of ride experience than newer coasters, but I hope we hang on to some of them. They're classic in their own way.

Swamp Fox is one of the better wooden coasters out there. There. I said it.

re: Colossus SFMM-it was meh and painful. I like the ride now.

re: Rougarou-I think it’s much better than Mantis but it’s very middle of the pack.

re: Millennium Force-I don’t get the hate. But I like speed.

re: Beast-average at best, but I still like it.

Also, Vater is never funny when pointing out my typos. ;-P

Have plenty of these

- SF great adventure is very overrated as a park. Don't see how it gets mentioned as top tier Sf park

- Don't like the park atmosphere in SF over GA and they should demolish Blue Hawk/G.a.s.m and revamp that whole area

- Magnum in 2020 was meh but it should never be demolished

- The Beast was super awesome and i was glad people's opinions made me have low expectations coming in

-Iron Rattler much better than Wonder Woman. No contest

- Kumba is better than Montu and trimmed Montu may be one of the most overrated coasters in the world

- Not dueling T.Colossus is a low tier rmc

- 90 degree drops are overrated.

- Phantoms Revenge and Mystic timbers are not top 20 coaster material

- Orion was very meh

- Original version of Superman r.o.s New england is still the best coaster ever. Steel Vengeance a close 2nd

In order you posted:

1) Top Tier SF park is not a very high bar to reach. They have a decent collection of rides and that's all you can ask for at a SF park.

2) You don't like weed?

3) Sink faster!

5) Iron Rattler is the best RMC that I've ridden. (Been on 5, 6 if you count Wonder Woman) Yes, better than SV.

7) Big time

10) Not unpopular at all from what I gather. I haven't ridden. But thank you for not bringing up 287.

SLCs are fine. They're not in the same universe as a Beemer, but they're still a good time! I feel like the roughness element is overstated. Or maybe I just haven't ridden a particularly bad example.

Let's see if I can stir the pot.

1. B&M coasters, with rare exception, aren't very exciting.

2. I really enjoyed flying dutchmans.

3. I didn't much care for Kennywood, reminded me of a slightly upgraded six flags.

4. I think Intamin/RMC/GG are probably on par as the best operational manufacturers of coasters.