Ride to Happiness.
Something truly special. Plopsaland and Mack have knocked it out of the park with this one. I love it.
We like to talk about our Top 10's round here, or our Top 10%. I prefer the 10% method, it's fairer, it's relative, it removes the bias from either very high or very low personal counts. I mean, someone with a coaster count of 12 is unlikely to have a very inspiring Top 10, are they?
From the very first lap, I knew that Ride to Happiness was more than just Top 10% material, it was Top 1% material. By lap 17, I think I've narrowed it down to Top 0.5% material. That's right
@HeartlineCoaster , I'll see your 16 laps and I'll raise you one. Nothing personal you understand, it wasn't a vendetta, but once I'd got into double figures I just thought I may as well (and I reckon that makes us even for your lawnmower guy vs my hot dog guy
)
Not gonna lie, maybe 2 or 3 of those laps beat me up a bit, I did feel a bit of shake on some of the high positive g-force moments, but it was only on a couple of laps. I couldn't pinpoint a particular seat or element, but with so many variable forces with constantly varying weight distributions acting on such a large scale installation I think it's reasonable to expect a slight shudder from time to time. And besides, I suspect it could well have been more to do with my personal tolerance and hydration levels rather than the ride itself. 17 laps on an extreme spinning multi launcher will do that to a 48 year old...
So yeah, top 0.5% for me. I'm fairly confident that Steel Vengeance is still my number 1, but that means that out of 422 creds, Ride to Happiness is battling it out with Helix and Shambhala for the number 2 spot. There's the delicate hand of serendipity coming into play here. Right manufacturer with the right product at the right time, mixed with the right theming package to showcase it and finished off with the best onboard music of any coaster on the planet. It all comes together beautifully to create something that genuinely hasn't been seen before. This really is something new and different and quite ridiculously brilliant. I mean sure, there's Time Traveler, but Time Traveler would just about scrape into the Top 10% on a good day. RTH expands and improves on Time Traveler in almost every way. One could argue that Time Traveler has a better opening - that vertical drop out of the station is a killer - and I guess you could say that TT is in a better setting/better park but apart from that, RTH smashes its older American sibling. It's bigger, much more forceful, much more disorienting, has much better pacing throughout (no mid course stop-start launch interrupting the flow, TT's Achilles heel), it has several moments of strong ejector airtime and as I said earlier, has that pounding, perfectly timed on board sountrack. The area is gorgeous, the ambient music in the queueline and station is somehow simultaneously both calming and exciting, the Tomorrowland theming concept is new, inspiring and uplifting.
And we haven't even got to sexy, green eyed robot lady yet. Watching over the proceedings from her vantage point in the station, clockwork monacles gliding in and out of view periodically, soothing words of encouragement on each dispatch and it's all in beautiful, glorious Queen's English... she's sort of mesmerising. I want to marry her.
"Magical people of tomorrow,
the power of nature has brought you to this place. Rest assured it will not abandon you on your ride to happiness.
Cherish this crucial moment of change and carry it with you in your heart.
Let us unite and feel the power... of nature".
And off you go.
Yes, I'm that into this ride that I've memorised the dispatch speeches! That's just one of them, there's a couple of different ones too.
If you buy into it, if you absorb the music and the messages and allow the whole experience to wash over you, it's just possible that you might even feel a touch emotional as your turn approaches. Even on your 17th lap of the day.
This ride is an absolute joy, every single time. I can't recommend it highly enough. I might even do a full trip report and gush about it some more but for now, just get yourselves to Ploppyland. Make it a priority. Do it now.
You’re not sure whether [Kondaa] is better than Dutch Goliath? Wow. Either you really love Goliath, or I need to scale my expectations for this coaster way back.
Well, I
do really love Dutch Goliath... but I rode it again yesterday and... uhm... yeah, maybe it's not quite as good as I remember, and maybe Kondaa is actually significantly better? See, I first rode Goliath a long time ago when it was still one the best in Europe, and I've also had a few great sessions on it since, but riding it and Kondaa within 2 days of each other did highlight how things have moved on in terms of layout design. So yes, I do concede that nostalgia bias may have clouded my judgment somewhat on my earlier comment about Goliath (as opposed to recency bias which could conceivably be clouding my judgment on RTH?
)
However, I do still maintain my comment that Kondaa does try a wee bit too hard to be 'tricksy' and that the
perfect layout for an Intamin like this would be a sort of halfway point between the two? But don't worry about trimming your expectations - Kondaa is still a fab ride, in a rapidly improving park. You'll like it.
) or Expedition GeForce, for example? Hmm not sure to be honest. I guess that, as with most things, is simply a matter of personal preference. On the one hand it's great to see Intamin throwing out some new layout ideas - twisty doubledowns, non-inverting cobra rolls (which, in my opinion, most definitely does invert) and all that post RMC, sideways airtime wackyness etc... BUT on the other hand, the more time Kondaa spends cocking about trying to be an RMC, the less time it spends being the thing that Intamin mega-coasters are best at being, which is straight forward, no nonsense, ejector-filled, speed machines. 
♡
