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A park with the best and worst coaster in one!

i am sort of curious more about the terrible coasters that arent clones or kiddy rides, ie were meant to be unique and good coasters. i'm interested in those sort of stats.

if mine trains count, i'd probably say cedar creek mine ride and SV/MF/mav/etc is a good combo. (and i love mine trains...)

if that's too much of a family coaster though, I'm not sure. i'd probably go with psyclone/tatsu but I'm not sure thats been relevant since like 2005 :p
i need to get out more...
 
How about Six Flags Great Adventure. You have El Toro next to Runaway Mine Train. Absolutely THE worst mine coaster I have ridden.
 
I was pretty disappointed with Colorado Adventure at Phantasialand to be honest. Quite surprisingly so, as I usually can find a lot of good things to say about family coasters.
Given that Taron is my favourite coaster I think it's worth a mention.

CA is perhaps not as bad as a headbanging SLC but the train is awful. I don't remember the old trains on Big Thunder Mountain in Disney Paris ever being as bad. Also since the coaster hardly has any straights it never feels like it gets much speed. You are just constantly being thrown into both sides of the seat in an irritating fashion. It feels like there are no sudden drops. People talking about airtime here make no sense to me. The coaster doesn't seem to have any to me. You just drop down an angle, change direction and slowly head back up and this goes on the entire ride. Even a junior Vekoma I think is better. A family boomerang is MUCH better.

Really strange it's from the same manufacturer as BTM at Disney Paris which I think is brilliant in comparison. That one has a stellar layout with great sudden drops and massive speed in the tunnels.
A newer train on CA with better, deeper seats would probably fix a lot but I think the constant angled helixes just don't make a good coaster layout at all. I know that Phantasialand doesn't have much space but a better layout with some more straights and thus more speed should have been possible I reckon.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach with The Big One (my favourite UK coaster) and the now beyond awful Grand National (even worse than Infusion I'd say) is another one.
 
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AndrewRollercoaster said:
I was pretty disappointed with Colorado Adventure at Phantasialand to be honest. Quite surprisingly so, as I usually can find a lot of good things to say about family coasters.
Given that Taron is my favourite coaster I think it's worth a mention.

CA is perhaps not as bad as a headbanging SLC but the train is awful. I don't remember the old trains on Big Thunder Mountain in Disney Paris ever being as bad. Also since the coaster hardly has any straights it never feels like it gets much speed. You are just constantly being thrown into both sides of the seat in an irritating fashion.

Really strange it's from the same manufacturer as BTM at Disney Paris which I think is brilliant in comparison.
A newer train on CA with better, deeper seats would probably fix a lot but I think the constant angled helixes just don't make a good coaster layout at all. I know that Phantasialand doesn't have much space but a better layout with some more straights and thus more speed should have been possible I reckon.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach with Big One (my favourite UK coaster) and the now beyond awful Grand National (even worse than Infusion I'd say) is another one.
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^ really interesting you say that, as I though CA was brutal when I went on it recently! Where were you sat? Upfront (riding in the train car), the ride accelerates in really odd places and feels completely unpredictable, forceful and even a little scary. We then rode in row 3 and it was noticeably less intense. Riding in that front row is hardcore!

As I mentioned elsewhere, and I think this proves the legitimacy of what I’m saying, CA was the only coaster of the trip my wife screamed on... she didn’t even scream on Zadra!

Edit - on reflection, I think you’re saying that the problem is the lack of comfort and the layout, which is fair enough... I wrongly thought you said it was bad due to being tame!
 
Well it's probably not a popular opinion but I was really looking forward to it and just left disappointed. I rode it twice last year, towards the back and towards the front to give it another try. I thought it would be one to re-ride a lot. But I just stuck with Taron, Black Mamba and Chiapas mostly over my multi day visit. Even did Raik more often.
just not my cup of tea but I agree with the unpredictable thing.
 
To take the topic title completely literally: The Ultimate, Lightwater Valley.

To be clear, I bloody love it and it has some incredible moments, the second half mad dash through the forest in particular and the thigh-destroying orbital-airtime bunny hop shortly after. It could also be objectively described as bad (sacrilege!), with the crazily long too-heavy trains, the lack of banking, the limping back to the station necessitating a third chain lift, the profiling of the terrain hills in the first half that removes airtime...

Very much hope it reopens next year though, would be a huge loss if the closure is permanent.
 
Rupert said:
To take the topic title completely literally: The Ultimate, Lightwater Valley.

To be clear, I bloody love it and it has some incredible moments, the second half mad dash through the forest in particular and the thigh-destroying orbital-airtime bunny hop shortly after. It could also be objectively described as bad (sacrilege!), with the crazily long too-heavy trains, the lack of banking, the limping back to the station necessitating a third chain lift, the profiling of the terrain hills in the first half that removes airtime...

Very much hope it reopens next year though, would be a huge loss if the closure is permanent.
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That's a fair shout, raptor attack is one best coasters in the UK, while Ultimate is deffiently one of the most brutal. ( not done hero or tornado mind! )
 
Rupert said:
To take the topic title completely literally: The Ultimate, Lightwater Valley.

To be clear, I bloody love it and it has some incredible moments, the second half mad dash through the forest in particular and the thigh-destroying orbital-airtime bunny hop shortly after. It could also be objectively described as bad (sacrilege!), with the crazily long too-heavy trains, the lack of banking, the limping back to the station necessitating a third chain lift, the profiling of the terrain hills in the first half that removes airtime...

Very much hope it reopens next year though, would be a huge loss if the closure is permanent.
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I think that is a good point. One can interpret the title of the thread exactly in that sense.

I agree with the Ultimate in that light.
It is superb, like a long journey, that takes you so far away from the main park and back again. The ground hugging race through the forest is like nothing else I've experienced.
I love it indeed but hate it at the same time as it was far more brutal than I was expecting. The lift hills are far too slow, especially the second one.
Really strange train too with the weird cushion restraints pushing against you.

I love it it in its current form but think it could either be RMC-ed or completely replaced with modern Vekoma or Intamin tracks, lifthills and trains to make it better / more noob friendly, higher capacity and make it last longer.

It probably won't last another 25 years how it is now I would have thought. I want it to reopen but also want to see it be upgraded / modernised. Really in two minds about it.
We will see what happens with it.

I think "ultimately" the people who have owned the park since Staveley are just not the type of coaster enthusiasts to make sure it survives.
 
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If we are talking about the Phantasialand then Black Mamba needs to be added to the list. That thing has gotten so rough that it was crushing my ears even if I was bracing all I could. Colorado Adeventure is an forceful mine train and a really good ride, exept for the theming it is nothing like any other mine train. Both Winjas are fun rides. But if we are talking only original coaster then PHL surely got both the best and the worst in the same park.

Taron is incredible!

Black Mamba is something that I would spend hours watching but hate riding!

Flying Bats is pointless (without VR due to Corona)
 
Another vote here for Phantasialand, though for different reasons:

Taron and Temple of the Nighthawk. These two are actually my top and bottom coasters I've ridden. Detest Night Hawk as it made me feel so sick.
 
Agree with both Walibi Holland and Energylandia.

Not sad to see Viking eventually go, it gave some of the most painful rides I ever experienced. Zadra on the other hand... <3

Honourable mention goes to Sunac Land Hefei. Soaring with Dragon is bliss, Battle of Jungle King shuffles painstakingly slowly through its mundane layout.
 
Heth said:
Another vote here for Phantasialand, though for different reasons:

Taron and Temple of the Nighthawk. These two are actually my top and bottom coasters I've ridden. Detest Night Hawk as it made me feel so sick.
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Didn't even think of this combo but you're so right. Temple of the Nighthawk made me want to yak. Horrendous.
 
Temple of the Nighthawk is kinda gone. It's now Crazy Bats, a VR coaster but without VR due to corona. So even more pointless now.
 
There doesn't seem too much wrong with that Temple of Nighthawk / Crazy Bats coaster to me. Surely it could be as good as the likes of Vogelrok by adding on board audio, a few lights, props and wind machines.
 
Taking a gander at my coaster rankings, I scrolled all the way to the bottom, and tried to find the rough correlation of parks with very low/very high rankings for roller coasters.

Some humble submissions and suggestions:

  • Holiday World: Voyage, Howler
  • Hersheypark: Skyrush, Trailblazer
  • Six Flags Magic Mountain: X2, Goldrusher
  • Kentucky Kingdom: Storm Chaser, Roller Skater
  • Cedar Point: Steel Vengeance, Wilderness Express
 
Don't blame me for being kinda patriotic, but Parc Astérix might be a solid contender in here.

One one hand, we have a very good inverted B&M (not the best I agree, but still) that is Oziris, and on the other hand,... Goudurix. My personnal worst. Last time I rode this evil piece of crap, I thought I would throw up and passed out because of the pain. Ruined the rest of the day for me, I spent the next 2 hours lying on a bench.

Would've agreed with Walibi Holland but as I gently skipped El Condor (not wanted to spoil my rides on Untamed), I couldn't really say.
Hum yeah, agree with PaW. Shambhala is heaven, Furius Baco, launch and Inline Twist aside, is hell. Shaky as f***, quite boring on the layout, and with the hideous restrains that tend to tighten during the ride. Always compress my bladder to a point I don't realize how it hasn't already broke. And of course, the staff is so efficient we always spend 10 min waiting on the brake run having my organs fusionning into each other ...
 
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