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Park with the most extreme quality gap?

Coaster Hipster

Coaster Hipster

Giga Poster
Some parks have an all-round quality line-up with no stinkers, others... do not.
Let's talk about the parks who have the widest (and/or wildest!) range of excitement from "Top 10 material" to "among the worst coasters ever"...

Some examples I have in mind:

Energylandia

Zadra is currently my #2, Hyperion my #11
Viking Roller Coaster, that awful SBF spinning wild mouse (with OTSR!) could be my least favourite coaster so far...


Walibi Holland

Similar combo of RMC Hybrid (Untamed, my #9) and Intamin Mega (Goliath, #23)
aaaand we have Condor, the first ever SLC exactly next door. Not convinced vest restraints can save this ride..

Kings Dominion

Same colours, same zone in the park, widely different ride experiences: Intimidator 305 and Anaconda.
Guess which one I rode only once.
Twisted Timbers continues the trend of having an RMC Hybrid + Intamin coaster in this list.

Hefei Wanda

Soaring with Dragon is among the best coasters in China (imho), great start for Intamin in the switch track launch gimmick, with a marvellous non-inverting loop.
Battle of Jungle King shows that Jinma Rides had not mastered smooth banking and pacing as of 2016. The tilt drop & scenery are the only redeeming features of this headbanging journey.


Do you have other examples in mind?
 
One you haven’t mentioned that is possible is PortAventura. Shambhala is almost universally loved, while Furius Baco is despised by a fair few.
 
Parc Asterix? Obviously Goudurix is like being repeatedly punched in the face, but Oziris is an absolute joy (and I imagine the new Intamin will be even better).
 
On a personal level I would say my home park Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I love Icon. I would say that Revolution and The Big Dipper are solid, but The Grand National has become one of the roughest wooden coasters out there and Steeplechase is basically backbraking device.

I would also nominate Carowinds for having the world's best B&M in Fury 325 matched with the notoriously bad Nighthawk, Vortex, Hurler and Carolina Cyclone.

Walibi Belgium has the brilliant Kondaa, but other than Pulsar and Psyke Undergroud every other coaster is "fine" at best.



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I might also suggest Kentucky Kingdom. Storm Chaser is obscenely well rated, while T3 is obscenely hated.

Out of what I've visited, though; the largest quantity gap is Blackpool Pleasure Beach, with Icon sitting at my #4 spot while Infusion sits at #91, my very bottom spot.
 
Linnanmäki has my second favourite coaster in Taiga, and second most-hated coaster in Ukko.

Energylandia and Walibi Holland are other obvious candidates, as mentioned.

I haven't done Kondaa yet, but if it's in the 'Top 10%' material conversation, then you could chuck Walibi Belgium in the mix given it has a horrid Boomerang and SLC.
 
Walibi Belgium has a masterpiece with Kondaa and two absolute garbage fires in the form of Loup-Garou and Vampire. Vampire I expected to suck since I had ridden MP-Express earlier and it was pretty bad already, but Loup-Garou was shocking in how terrible it was. The rest of the line-up varies from okay to pretty good.
 
Matt N said:
One you haven’t mentioned that is possible is PortAventura. Shambhala is almost universally loved, while Furius Baco is despised by a fair few.
Click to expand...

Furius Baco has its fans though. Im one of them! I’d say Stampida, Dragons khan, and Red Force are all mediocre and unlikeable though. So probably a park worthy of the title.

For me it probably is Blackpool Pleasure Beach- when I last went you had Big Dipper, Wild Mouse, and Revolution as great rides. But then you had Infusion which is a torture device, steeplechase which needs burning down, and Grand Nash which beats you to death and is becoming not even worth the airtime.


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Nicky Borrill said:
I quite liked Goudrix 🤷‍♂️

That's it, nothing to add to this thread, I generally agree with everything else... But I did like Goudrix quite a lot, More than their woodie as it was at the time.
Click to expand...

Liked for the Goudurix ... if not quite 'love' then 'non-hate', shall we say. I also dug Goudurix quite a lot. It's huge, it's pretty, it's intimidating and, apart from one noticeable jolt on the batwing, I thought it rode pretty well too. Second favourite coaster at the park as it happens. Don't understand the abuse it gets.
Otherwise some solid answers here, especially Energylandia and the Walibis. Has anyone mentioned Phantasialand yet? Taron vs Temple of the Nighthawk is a pretty stark difference in quality, don't you think?
 
I dunno if having an SLC really counts, they are a bit rubbish but at the time were a decent ride which is why parks built them.

For me its more like Ferrari land where you have Red Force and then some cheap SBF Visa kiddy coaster as the other.

What about Animal Kingdom back when it had both the $100m Expedition Everest and then the 2 Reverchon Spinners.
 
https://rcdb.com/4926.htm While Weiner Prater's collection might be a load of crap at the current, soon it will be a victim in this thread when it gets its Big Dipper... and then it's second most extreme rides will be a Volare and a Boomerang!

https://rcdb.com/5637.htm Legendia's got a world class Vekoma... smack next to a ripoff Schwarzkopf being it's 2nd best ride of the park

https://rcdb.com/4539.htm Canada's Wonderland is the home of 3 world class B&M's, but then the rest of the rides apart from the flats descend to Energylandia supporting coaster collection level... bad!

https://rcdb.com/4958.htm Home of Hakugei, SDK2000, and a Manta at SWO clone, Nagashima's collection gets a whole lot weirder, with dueling wild mice, 2 wild Togo creations, a rough corkscrew... truly weird

https://rcdb.com/7070.htm Vin Wonders, with the fast and tall next gen Vekoma "Wrath of Zeus" in it's lineup, then just packs like 6 crappy family rides along for the ride

https://rcdb.com/11867.htm Nanchang Sunac Land is home to two world class obscure coasters, one a terrain GCI 5,000 feet long and the others a 200 foot tall Intamin hyper... Soaring Dragon & Dancing Phoenix though, here's an SLC knockoff, is nothing to write home about!

https://rcdb.com/6754.htm There's a crazy Mack hyper over at Lewa Adventure, but then for supporting extreme rides... does a Jinma Rides suspended rollercoaster along with a Beijing Shibaloai Amusements corkscrew look any good???
 
Steel Vengeance Vs Mean Streak - One of the worst creds I've ever ridden got turned into my number 1, the gap in quality between these 2 is so big they literally destroyed it to make the best ride in the world.

Doesn't count? Fine.
Zadra Vs Viking Roller Coaster for sure. Honorary mentions to Fury 325 Vs Nighthawk (**** that POS) and Untamed Vs Condor.
 
There are three candidates that really stick out from my experience, all of which have already been mentioned but I'm going to reiterate:
  • Energylandia with Zadra and Viking
  • Walibi Holland with Untamed and Condor
  • Kentucky Kingdom with Storm Chaser and T3
It's tough to not crown Kentucky Kingdom as the champ because T3 is probably my most hated coaster on the planet at the moment. However, Zadra is just sooo good and Viking is sooo bad. For all the hell that people give Energylandia for its coaster collection, most of the coasters are perfectly fine and ride well. However, Viking is so incredibly bad and such an outlier that I'm truly shocked they haven't replaced it with a better model.
 
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