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Top 10(ish): 2024 Edition - page 124

A post US Live update has arrived

1: Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point
2: Lightning Rod - Dollywood
3: Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City
4: Voyage - Holiday World
5: Storm Chaser - Kentucky Kingdom
6: Goliath - Six Flags Great America
7: Shambhala - Port Aventura
8: Phoenix - Knoebels
9: Maverick - Cedar Point
10: Twisted Timbers - King's Dominion

The major differences here are after a lot of internal debate Steel Vengeance has knocked Lightning Rod out of my #1 spot The Night ride really put it over the top for me, It definitely doens't have an element as great as Lightning Rods Quad Down but the ride is aggressive with a great mix of forces and doesn't let up. The other big changes for me are Maverick sliding back in to my top 10 and RFII (rode it today after my post live extra activities on my trip home) for the first time since I rode it for the first time in 2013 has been knocked out of my top 10. The ride is by no means bad, but it definitely could use some TLC and retracking in sections and for whatever reason the lift hill is slowing down at the top causing a pretty significant loss of speed towards the end of the ride to where there weren't really any forces where they used to be. I also took the time to think about and add an 11-20 to my list.

11: Leap the Dips - Lakemont Park
12: El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
13: Superman, The Ride - Six Flags New England
14: Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce
15: Space Mountain - Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom
16: Thunderbird - Holiday World
17: Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer
18: Lightning Run - Kentucky Kingdom
19: Matterhorn Bobsleds - Disney Land
20: Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland

(once again New rides in Bold, Rides ridden in the last 2 years in italics. Rides that have moved since the last update will be underlined)

With My season over I think it's time for a little update here:

1: Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point
2: Lightning Rod - Dollywood
3: Voyage - Holiday World
4: Storm Chaser - Kentucky Kingdom
5: Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City
6: Goliath - Six Flags Great America
7: Shambhala - Port Aventura
8: Phoenix - Knoebels
9: Maverick - Cedar Point
10: Twisted Timbers - King's Dominion
11: Leap the Dips - Lakemont Park
12: El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
13: Superman, The Ride - Six Flags New England
14: Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce
15: Space Mountain - Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom
16: Thunderbird - Holiday World
17: Lightning Run - Kentucky Kingdom
18: Matterhorn Bobsleds - Disneyland
19: Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland
20: Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer

The biggest changes here are Voyage's Rise and RFII's fall. The recent Night Ride's on Voyage as well as the significant difference since the retracking of Voyage's ride spring it up as high as it can likely ever get in my top 10. RFII's on the other hand rode poorly and the more i look at my top 20 the more I realize I'd rather ride everything above it on this list then it so it's fallen.

(once again New rides in Bold, Rides ridden in the last 2 years in italics. Rides that have moved since the last update will be underlined)
 
Another year gone so time to update my top ten. Here's last year's:
1. Taron
2. Nemesis
3. Wicked Cyclone
4. Goliath (SFOG)
5. Furius Baco
6. Shambhala
7. Superman (SFNE)
8. Storm Chaser
9. Thunderhead
10. Black Mamba

And this year: (new entries in bold)

1. Taron
2. Nemesis
3. Wicked Cyclone
4. Goliath (SFOG)
5. Furius Baco
6. Shambhala
7. Mako
8. Superman (SFNE)
9. Storm Chaser
10. Icon

No big changes for me, though there are plenty of great new creds that didn't quite make the top ten, such as Montu, Cheetah Hunt, Fenix and Joris en de Draak. Speaking of which, since I have no woodies in my top ten anymore but have ridden 6 more over the year, here's a new top ten woodies:

1. Thunderhead
2. Joris en de Draak - Fire
3. Wild Mouse (BPB)
4. The Comet (Great Escape)
5. Troy
6. Mine Blower
7. Joris en de Draak - Water

8. Kentucky Rumbler
9. Wicker Man
10. Heidi the Ride

It's a bit GCI-heavy! :D
 
Just added a delicious new surprise from Florida. Mine Blower is a great ride and worthy of its new position.


1 Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point
2 Lightning Rod - Dollywood
3 Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce
4 El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
5 Goliath - Six Flags Great America
6 Wildfire - Kolmarden
7 Voyage - Holiday World
8 Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City
9 Storm Chaser - Kentucky Kingdom
10 Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee


11 Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer
12 Maverick - Cedar Point
13 Phoenix - Knoebels
14 Cornball Express - Indiana Beach
15 Banshee - Kings Island
16 Afterburn - Carowinds
17 Boardwalk Bullet - Kemah Boardwalk
18 Wicked Cyclone - Six Flags New England
19 Top Thrill Dragster - Cedar Point
20 Superman The Ride - Six Flags New England
21 Lightning Run - Kentucky Kingdom
22 X2 - Six Flags Magic Mountain
23 Behemoth - Canada's Wonderland
24 Tatsu - Six Flags Magic Mountain
25 Mystic Timbers - Kings Island
26 Prowler - Worlds of Fun
27 Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland
28 Fury 325 - Carowinds
29 Thunderbird - Holiday World
30 Superman Krypton Coaster - Six Flags Fiesta Texas
 
Damn! Think that's the highest I've ever seen it rated. It looks like a great little ride, but I never thought it would be Top 10 or 20 material.
 
Damn! Think that's the highest I've ever seen it rated. It looks like a great little ride, but I never thought it would be Top 10 or 20 material.

It legit does not stop from beginning to end. Airtime was great, the inversion was great, was smooth as BUTTER the entire ride. Good in the front, back, and middle. Just fun non-stop. As soon as I had a glance at my tops and saw RFII.. I KNEW it was better then it as well as a few rides below it (I do think some rearranging is in order). I do think it's undervalued, especially if you only ride it once or twice and if it's running slow and thats your only experience. I can definitely see it riding slow, especially early, and being underwhelmed as I've had that happen on other rides myself. But that true potential really showed.

I definitely see that happening more often with woodies then steel attractions as well. And as the park itself doesn't stand out, I can see people dampening thoughts on it because of outside factors.
 
It legit does not stop from beginning to end. Airtime was great, the inversion was great, was smooth as BUTTER the entire ride. Good in the front, back, and middle. Just fun non-stop. As soon as I had a glance at my tops and saw RFII.. I KNEW it was better then it as well as a few rides below it (I do think some rearranging is in order). I do think it's undervalued, especially if you only ride it once or twice and if it's running slow and thats your only experience. I can definitely see it riding slow, especially early, and being underwhelmed as I've had that happen on other rides myself. But that true potential really showed.

I definitely see that happening more often with woodies then steel attractions as well. And as the park itself doesn't stand out, I can see people dampening thoughts on it because of outside factors.
I rode it with guys with coaster counts in the 500s, and they said they had it as their third favorite coaster, behind only i305 and DC Rivals.
 
I definitely see that happening more often with woodies then steel attractions as well. And as the park itself doesn't stand out, I can see people dampening thoughts on it because of outside factors.
I can really see this happening, actually.

"200ft steel coaster at huge chain park" - that'll be amazing.
"90ft woodie at small local park" - nice, +1.

So often wrong.
 
I can really see this happening, actually.

"200ft steel coaster at huge chain park" - that'll be amazing.
"90ft woodie at small local park" - nice, +1.

So often wrong.

Exactly! I always keep an open mind on those little attractions. That may have been why I feel so deep in love with Cornball Express at Indiana Beach! No one talked about it yet I adored it!

Hell, I talked to the guy who designed it and he even said its still one of his favorites even though he's built bigger and "sexier" attractions out there.
 
Exactly! I always keep an open mind on those little attractions. That may have been why I feel so deep in love with Cornball Express at Indiana Beach! No one talked about it yet I adored it!

Hell, I talked to the guy who designed it and he even said its still one of his favorites even though he's built bigger and "sexier" attractions out there.

100% this. I've been surprised by more than a few coasters over the past few years because their stats are a bit deceiving. Goliath at SFGAm, Mind Bender at SFOG, Cobra's Curse, and Expedition Everest all come to mind.

Mineblower was surprisingly good, and as I mentioned in my trip report thread back in March, the people who say it's rough are basically just saying that it's a wooden roller coaster.
 
Stats don't necessarily make a better ride, in my opinion; Nemesis is only the same height as the 335m Vekoma Rollerskater, and that's my #5! Wicker Man also isn't the largest of coasters, and that's my #10!

If we were going off of stats alone, then my #1 coaster would be the Big One! And if you read my trip report from Blackpool, you'll know that that most certainly isn't the case!

As the saying goes; the best things come in small packages! Although saying that, my #1 is 200ft tall and reaches 73mph...
 
DID SOMEONE SAY RANKINGS CAN BE CORRELATED TO DIFFERENT RIDE STATISTICS!!!???

giphy.gif

For those unaware, if you click my rankings below (or this link), you can view my entire roller coaster rankings, as well as ride statistics and graphs. In general, I have always been interested on if certain ride statistics are more important indicators than others to how much I will like a ride.

Right now, this is how various statistics correlate with ride rankings; this is to say, the closer a number gets to 1, the more correlated it is to being highly ranked:

R Value Correlation
Top Speed 0.69029528
Height 0.60378241
Cost 0.53632159
Length 0.52140063
Drop Height 0.49594487
Year Opened 0.46790761
Inversions 0.34050021
Duration 0.25414499

Top Speed and Height are the largest indicators of how much I will enjoy a ride, with Cost, Length, and Drop Height shortly behind. It's interesting, Duration is the least of indicators (I'm sure TTD's 16 second ride doesn't help that :p ), I would have thought it to be more important.

Check out my rankings for cool graphs, it's really dorky, and really fun.
 
Itty bitty update since my last due to the itty bitty RMC:

1. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point
2. Lightning Rod - Cedar Point
3. Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City
4. Goliath - Six Flags Great America
5. Voyage - Holiday World
6. Superman: The Ride/Bizarro - Six Flags New England
7. Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce
8. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
9. Maverick - Cedar Point
10. Storm Chaser - Kentucky Kingdom

11. Banshee - Kings Island
12. X2 - Six Flags Magic Mountain
13. Twisted Cyclone - Six Flags Over Georgia
14. Tatsu - Six Flags Magic Mountain
15. The Joker - Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
16. Mako - Sea World Orlando
17. Thunderbird - Holiday World
18. Wicked Cyclone - Six Flags New England
19. Skyrush - Hersheypark
20. Roar-o-saurus - Story Land

21. Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland
22. Mine Blower - Fun Spot America
23. Top Thrill Dragster - Cedar Point
24. Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer
25. Phoenix - Knoebels
26. Goliath - Six Flags Over Georgia
27. Flight Deck - California's Great America
28. Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
29. Montana Triple Loop - La Feria Chapultepec Magico
30. Lightning Run - Kentucky Kingdom


Twisted Cyclone was fantastic. Although short, it's one of the best flowing RMCs yet.


And while I'm here...I mentioned in my trip report thread that rankings are so unbelievably subjective and that Thunderhead at Dollywood really exhibited that this past weekend. In one single day, my opinion of the ride became much more favorable between my first and last ride (as did the rest of my group's opinion of it). On that same day, I saw another person state that it was incredibly rough - something that I did not agree with. Then I start thinking about how people say some other rides operate, such as Phoenix, Boulder Dash, or Cornball. All three of these woodies likely have the same sort of all across the board reactions. I've heard people say that each of those three woodies are front of the train rides. I've heard people say that Boulder Dash is unbearably rough anywhere besides the front seat. I've heard people claim that both Mine Blower and Ravine Flyer II are rough - an opinion on which I will vehemently disagree with anybody.

So why do people's opinions on various rides differ so much? @Hyde's recent post is a good insight regarding personal preference. Wow factor and length are two obvious driving factors behind my rankings. Maybe someone was in a bad mood from a stressful drive to the park or maybe a major attraction was closed? I'm sure recency bias also plays into rankings more significantly that any of us would let on. But what else is there besides personal preference? How could one person think a ride is smooth and another person think it's rough on the exact same day? As far as natural phenomena...temperature, humidity, sun load, precipitation, train weight, life cycle of moving parts...there are so many variables that change even from hour to hour it makes me wonder why we even bother roasting each other over a "questionable" placement of a ride in any given person's rankings.
 
For those unaware, if you click my rankings below (or this link), you can view my entire roller coaster rankings, as well as ride statistics and graphs. In general, I have always been interested on if certain ride statistics are more important indicators than others to how much I will like a ride.

Right now, this is how various statistics correlate with ride rankings; this is to say, the closer a number gets to 1, the more correlated it is to being highly ranked:

R Value Correlation
Top Speed 0.69029528
Height 0.60378241
Cost 0.53632159
Length 0.52140063
Drop Height 0.49594487
Year Opened 0.46790761
Inversions 0.34050021
Duration 0.25414499

Top Speed and Height are the largest indicators of how much I will enjoy a ride, with Cost, Length, and Drop Height shortly behind. It's interesting, Duration is the least of indicators (I'm sure TTD's 16 second ride doesn't help that :p ), I would have thought it to be more important.

Check out my rankings for cool graphs, it's really dorky, and really fun.

WTF did I just read? :D
Like... I know we're all goons here, and everyone has the right to indulge in this hobby to whatever extent they like, but even now, 4 and a half years in, it still amazes me just how goony some of you can be!
I mean, how many decimal places do those stats need to be, bruv? :)
You crazy kids! Love it here, I do.
 
WTF did I just read? :D
Like... I know we're all goons here, and everyone has the right to indulge in this hobby to whatever extent they like, but even now, 4 and a half years in, it still amazes me just how goony some of you can be!
I mean, how many decimal places do those stats need to be, bruv? :)
You crazy kids! Love it here, I do.
This sheet has definitely gotten out of hand over time. :p I started it about 6 years ago, with the general question of what ride characteristics are most important to me. Now it's just an excuse for me to toy with statistical regressions in.

... the next step I've been curious to do is categorizing inversion and element types. Maybe I could hire an intern?
 
Itty bitty update since my last due to the itty bitty RMC:

1. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point
2. Lightning Rod - Cedar Point
3. Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City
4. Goliath - Six Flags Great America
5. Voyage - Holiday World
6. Superman: The Ride/Bizarro - Six Flags New England
7. Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce
8. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
9. Maverick - Cedar Point
10. Storm Chaser - Kentucky Kingdom

11. Banshee - Kings Island
12. X2 - Six Flags Magic Mountain
13. Twisted Cyclone - Six Flags Over Georgia
14. Tatsu - Six Flags Magic Mountain
15. The Joker - Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
16. Mako - Sea World Orlando
17. Thunderbird - Holiday World
18. Wicked Cyclone - Six Flags New England
19. Skyrush - Hersheypark
20. Roar-o-saurus - Story Land

21. Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland
22. Mine Blower - Fun Spot America
23. Top Thrill Dragster - Cedar Point
24. Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer
25. Phoenix - Knoebels
26. Goliath - Six Flags Over Georgia
27. Flight Deck - California's Great America
28. Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
29. Montana Triple Loop - La Feria Chapultepec Magico
30. Lightning Run - Kentucky Kingdom


Twisted Cyclone was fantastic. Although short, it's one of the best flowing RMCs yet.


And while I'm here...I mentioned in my trip report thread that rankings are so unbelievably subjective and that Thunderhead at Dollywood really exhibited that this past weekend. In one single day, my opinion of the ride became much more favorable between my first and last ride (as did the rest of my group's opinion of it). On that same day, I saw another person state that it was incredibly rough - something that I did not agree with. Then I start thinking about how people say some other rides operate, such as Phoenix, Boulder Dash, or Cornball. All three of these woodies likely have the same sort of all across the board reactions. I've heard people say that each of those three woodies are front of the train rides. I've heard people say that Boulder Dash is unbearably rough anywhere besides the front seat. I've heard people claim that both Mine Blower and Ravine Flyer II are rough - an opinion on which I will vehemently disagree with anybody.

So why do people's opinions on various rides differ so much? @Hyde's recent post is a good insight regarding personal preference. Wow factor and length are two obvious driving factors behind my rankings. Maybe someone was in a bad mood from a stressful drive to the park or maybe a major attraction was closed? I'm sure recency bias also plays into rankings more significantly that any of us would let on. But what else is there besides personal preference? How could one person think a ride is smooth and another person think it's rough on the exact same day? As far as natural phenomena...temperature, humidity, sun load, precipitation, train weight, life cycle of moving parts...there are so many variables that change even from hour to hour it makes me wonder why we even bother roasting each other over a "questionable" placement of a ride in any given person's rankings.

Lightning Rod is at Cedar Point?
 
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