I've been on the same trip as
@ThomVD and
@CookieCoasters were, so obviously the new toys have brought some big changes to my top 50. As always new stuff in bold, movers in italics;
1. Ride to Happiness, Plopsaland De Panne
2. Taron, Phantasialand
3. Kondaa, Walibi Belgium
4. Flying Aces, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi
5. Untamed, Walibi Holland
6. X2, Six Flags Magic Mountain
7. Shambhala, PortAventura Park
8. Katun, Mirabilandia
9. Troy, Toverland
10. Expedition GeForce, Holiday Park
11. iSpeed, Mirabilandia
12. Black Mamba, Phantasialand
13. Tatsu, Six Flags Magic Mountain
14. Wild Mouse, Luna Park
15. Silver Star, Europa Park
16. Hair Raiser, Ocean Park
17. Wodan Timbur Coaster, Europa Park
18. Giant Dipper, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
19. Nemesis, Alton Towers
20. Wild Mouse, Pleasure Beach, Blackpool
21. Goliath, Walibi Holland
22. Oblivion - The Black Hole, Gardaland
23. Gravity Max, Discovery World
24. Pulsar, Walibi Belgium
25. Lost Gravity, Walibi Holland
26. Fēnix, Toverland
27. Superman Escape, Warner Bros. Movie World
28. Karacho, Erlebnispark Tripsdrill
29. Hyperspace Mountain, Hong Kong Disneyland
30. F.L.Y., Phantasialand
Ride to Happiness is absolutely insane. The initial inversion out of the station gives it some quirky fun. Then the launch felt surprisingly powerful for a Mack, though I only have Blue fire to compare it to, which isn't exactly the best benchmark out there. The first top hat offers the first massive portion of ejector (depending on where you sit on) and then the spinning makes the rest of the layout feel a bit like a constant mishmash of insanity, since every element felt completely different depending on the position of the train going through it. I feel like there was one ride where Thom and I got the train spinning in such a manner that every little element ended up giving an abundance of force. The ride finishes with a succession of very powerful bunny hops, which give ejector regardless of how the train decides to tackle them. It really felt like I had to hold on to my hoodie going through those, as I mostly ended up with it wrapped around my head once we hit the break run. Honestly it makes me wonder what the rides that are supposed to be better than this have to offer, as this seems to be a constant addition to everyone's top10, but never anyone's favorite.
I was lucky enough to ride my former number one
Taron a couple of days later on this trip as well. After the first back row ride a couple of hours after opening it had me wondering how this was ever anywhere close to being my favorite ride, but I managed to get 5 more rides through the course of the day where it started delivering its goods once again. But yeah, it has some dead spots (especially the section before the 2nd launch felt rather meander-y) and it needs time to warm up (so you can never have a full day of proper goodness here), so it doesn't quite hold up to RtH anymore, which is just pure insanity throughout the ride and from the very first ride in the morning on.
And I got my new #3 with
Kondaa as well, which is also a properly great ride. The first hill should be noted in the coaster dictionaries as the definition of flojector, though it did turn into some proper sustained ejector later in the day as the ride warmed up properly. The rest of the layout is great as well (though the cobra roll thingy probably kills the pacing just a tiny bit) and paired with the new Intamin trains, it really gives the proper feeling of freedom through most of the elements.
Silver Star and
Wodan were running great this visit (especially later in the day, the earlier rides were a bit average), so I bumped each of them up a few places.
Pulsar is still buckets of fun, though I did have it a bit too high in my rankings.
Karacho is still riding great, but after some 200 new coasters ridden after my last rides on it, it didn't feel like a world-class ride that I remembered anymore.
F.L.Y. is an amazing ride from the experience perspective, but it didn't exactly feel like a world class coaster in its own right. The long meander-y layout also made it a bit tough to keep my head up and take in everything the ride had to offer. The whole loading process is also very faffy and I struggle to understand how the airport like security system they make you use before each ride could be interpreted as fun, especially as they seemed happy to pester anyone who dared to ride it with their belt on before each ride.
