Matt 236 Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 Coaster Studios listed their top 25 European parks. Here’s mine: 1/ Europa Park 2/ Phantasialand 3/ Energylandia 4/ Disneyland Paris 5/ Parc Asterix 6/ Alton Towers 7/ Liseberg 8/ Tivoli Gardens 9/ Efteling 10/ Thorpe Park 11/ Tover Land 12/ Blackpool Pleasure Beach 13/ Legoland Billund 14/ Paultons Park 15/ Plopsa Land 16/ Chessington 17/ Hellendoorn 18/ Drayton Manor 19/ Legoland Windsor 20/ Great Yarmouth PB 21/ De Wasrbeck 22/ Flamingo Land 23/ Tivoli World Spain (now infamously abandoned) 24/ Bakken 25/ Oakwood Should probably try and visit a few more there. But long haul is more of a priority right now. I won’t be updating my dark ride list yet, but can safely say Pirates In Batavia 2 is arguably the best dark ride I’ve experienced outside of a Disney or universal park. It’s incredible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 Top 25 European parks? oooh, that's a doozy of a question... 1. Phantasialand 2. Parc Asterix 3. Efteling 4. Thorpe Park 5. Walibi Holland 6. Walibi Belgium 7. Djurs Sommerland 8. Heide Park 9. Legendia 10. Alton Towers 11. Movie Park Germany 12. Linnanmäki 13. Toverland 14. TusenFryd 15. Hansa Park 16. Plopsaland 17. Fårup Sommerland 18. Tivoli Gardens 19. Hellendoorn 20. Legoland Billund 21. Liseberg 22. Chessington 23. Energylandia 24. Legoland Windsor 25. Bellewaerde This was difficult and probably would change order. Legendia I visited 6 years ago, and I hear the park isn't as good as it was then. So that may change. I'd be interested to go back to Liseberg and see how I feel about it; I just didn't vibe with it when I visited 7 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 19 hours ago, JoshC. said: This was difficult and probably would change order. Legendia I visited 6 years ago, and I hear the park isn't as good as it was then. So that may change. I'd be interested to go back to Liseberg and see how I feel about it; I just didn't vibe with it when I visited 7 years ago. I’ve been to Legendia twice, in 2021 and 2023. It was definitely a park with charms and a stunning flagship coaster, however the park seemed rundown with a number of attractions either looking on their last legs or SBNO. We were actually evac’d from the twin looping coaster on our front trip as the chain snapped. I mean Liseberg is nice, I like their flume ride, Balder is incredible and the rest of the ride lineup is generally staple. I stayed in the Grand Curiosa hotel during its opening with the ECC and consider it one of the nicest park hotels I’ve done so far. The Oceana water park looks promising too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattgwise Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 Aside from literally Lech which is excellent Legendia is a mess! Visited last two summers and run down, broken rides, SBNO and just a sense that they are massively struggling. Both visits a major issue with the twin looper including a chain snap and almost having to have fire brigade called to get me out of the restraint manually on the lift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted July 20 Report Share Posted July 20 Well, I probably should wait until Drayton’s new coaster opens. However there’s just too many top 10’s to update at this point in time. Right. Top 10 UK Roller coasters: 1/ Hyperia 2/ Nemesis (Reborn) 3/ Wickerman 4/ Icon 5/ Nemesis Inferno 6/ Swarm 7/ PMBO 8/ Stealth 9/ Big Dipper 10/ Mandrill Mayhem Top 10 Mack Roller Coasters: 1/ Hyperia 2/ Voltron Navera EP 3/ Blue Fire 4/ Ride To Happiness 5/ Icon 6/ Helix 7/ Euromir 8/ Slinky Dog Dash 9/ Trace Du Hourra-Asterix 10/ Poseidon- Europa, Top 10 overall Roller Coasters: 1/ Steel Vengeance 2/ Veloci-coaster 3/ Zadra 4/ Toutatis 5/ Mako 6/ Hyperia 7/ Iron Gwazi 8/ Nemesis Reborn 9/ Voltron Navera 10/ Wodan Honourable Mentions: Taron, Hyperion, Millenium Force, The Beast, Maverick & Oziris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt N Posted August 19 Report Share Posted August 19 Following my visit to Thorpe Park yesterday, the first new addition of 2024 has graced my top 10! Since I last posted an updated list in this thread, I’ve also rejigged the order of my rankings a bit, so the order is slightly different to what it was before. With this in mind, my current top 10, with a coaster count of 123, is as follows (new addition in italics, altered placements underlined) : Mako - SeaWorld Orlando: Even 8 years after my first ride, this coaster still reigns supreme for me, and my 2023 revisit to SeaWorld (where I had 5 rides on it) reinforced that! The sustained airtime is absolutely biblical (particularly in moments like the first drop, first airtime hill and speed hill), the sense of speed is wonderful, it's blissfully smooth, and overall, it's just such a fun, thrilling and rerideable coaster that I could (and indeed tried my darnedest to) sit on all day! I truly love this ride, and on my 2023 revisit to SeaWorld, it didn't disappoint! 10/10 Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal’s Islands of Adventure: It may not quite be #1, but my goodness was it close, and VelociCoaster would certainly be a worthy contender for the top spot! There is so much that this ride does well; it packs a great sense of speed throughout, with the second section in particular feeling ridiculously fast, there are quite a few sublime moments of ejector airtime that really whip you out of the seat, there are some truly brilliant inversions, and overall, it's just a truly stunning, spectacular coaster, in my view! In terms of some specific highlights; it's hard to pick from the wonderful array of sensations on offer. But if I had to choose a few, the second launch is absolutely obscene, packing a euphoric thrill like few other rides I've ever experienced, the top hat is sublime, packing some breathtaking ejector airtime on the back in particular, and the mosasaurus roll is an absolutely mind-blowing inversion that throws you out of the seat with some sublime sustained negative g-forces and ensures that you fly into the final brakes blown away! Overall, VelociCoaster is a truly stunning coaster, in my opinion; its blend of stunning airtime, impactful elements, fun, comfort and rerideability certainly make it a firm favourite of mine! 10/10 Silver Star - Europa Park: I had quite low expectations for this coaster given that it's not overly well liked, but I have to say that I was blown away; I absolutely adored this coaster! It has wonderful sustained airtime, it's smooth and comfortable, it has an awesome sense of speed, the ending is absolutely brilliant, packing some phenomenal ejector airtime (particularly the MCBR exit), and overall, this is a stunning coaster that I absolutely loved! I did rank this below Mako of the two B&M Hypers I've ridden due to my feeling that its airtime, while stunning, never has quite the same impact as some of Mako's strongest moments, in my view, and while smooth in its own right, it isn't quite as blissfully smooth as Mako. I also felt it to be slightly less consistent, as I did have 1 or 2 slightly weaker rides on it during my trip to Europa. Nonetheless, Silver Star is a stunning coaster with phenomenal sustained airtime, and I love how it is incredibly rerideable and keeps the thrills going right to the end with that awesome post-MCBR section! 10/10 Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa: This ride is phenomenal! In terms of some key strengths, it’s absolutely relentless in pacing and has some of the strongest ejector airtime I’ve ever experienced, and some of the big hitters in the layout like the first drop, outerbanked turn, death roll and wave turn are truly sensational elements that are right up there with the best, in my opinion! The first drop in particular is insane; whipping you far out of the seat with ejector airtime for a surprisingly sustained period of time never gets old! There are also some absolutely top-drawer moments of ejector airtime elsewhere in the layout, and the ride is smooth and rerideable! In terms of why I moved it up when I haven’t reridden it, this is because in retrospect, I think I was overly harsh on Iron Gwazi at the time, fixating on its very tiniest imperfections to try and quantify the slight disappointment of it not quite living up to my wildly high expectations on the very first go. This is going to sound odd, but Iron Gwazi is a coaster where the more I sit back and think about it, the more I actually love it. Thinking back, it grew on me considerably the second and third times I did it once the weight of expectation was off its shoulders, and it is genuinely a top tier ride that is more than deserving of a top 5 placement for me! 10/10 Hyperia - Thorpe Park: What a sublime ride! I was excited for Hyperia, and it did not disappoint! I love a good hyper, and Hyperia is a phenomenal one! For starters, the ride is primarily designed around weightlessness, and it delivers this excellently; you seem to spend half of the ride pinned out of the seat in some capacity! The first three big elements on the ride are an obscenely perfect sequence. The first drop is absolutely unhinged and so, so good, delivering excellent sustained ejector, the non-inverting Immelmann is sublime and offers both brilliant speed rushing up into it and top-drawer sustained ejector coming out of it, and that outerbanked turn into the inversion is wild and pins you right of your seat with top-tier sustained sideways ejector! The zero-g stall is not quite up there with the other elements, but it is still excellent, with sustained hangtime, and the final two elements after the trim were surprisingly excellent, with both the outerbanked turn and the final airtime hill delivering! Overall, then, Hyperia is an absolutely sublime coaster, in my view, and it definitely lived up to the hype for me. It’s so good to have a coaster this brilliant 2 hours from home, that I can most probably ride at least once annually! 10/10 Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park: Wodan strikes the perfect balance between pure demented insanity and amazing fun factor and rerideability, in my view! It’s an absolutely relentless coaster, with phenomenal pacing right to the end, and it has quite a few really surprising pops of ejector airtime, including an excellent first drop, but it’s also a really smooth and comfortable wooden coaster, and it just manages to be a ridiculous amount of fun! Overall, Wodan is such a fast, airtime-filled and fun coaster that I absolutely loved on my visit to Europa Park! 10/10 Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal’s Islands of Adventure: Dismiss this as a “family” coaster all you want, but I think such quick dismissal would be a huge mistake, because this ride is phenomenal, in my view! Of the rides in my top 10, I’ll admit that this one probably has the least tangible reason to be there. However, the key reason why Hagrid’s ranks so highly for me is that purely and simply, it is a phenomenally, impeccably fun roller coaster! In terms of some specifics, the low-to-the-ground turns were a lot more thrilling than I expected and the launches were surprisingly punchy and great fun, but unlike many coasters, my love of Hagrid’s is for a much broader reason than any specific features of the ride layout. It is just so, so fun, and the ride will always leave you laughing hysterically and smiling on the final brake run, and that for me is really important. Riding Hagrid’s taught me a crucial lesson about my taste in coasters; it taught me that a coaster does not necessarily need greatness in the form of tangible elements for me to love it, and that fundamentally, all a coaster needs to be is fun. Hagrid’s is not the most intense ride by any means, but if you want pure fun, I’d struggle to recommend many better coasters than this one! 10/10 SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa: I had remembered liking this ride back in 2016, but my reride in 2023 was even better than I’d previously remembered! I love a B&M Dive Coaster, and this was a fantastic one! The sustained airtime over both drops was absolutely phenomenal, and the sheer size of them produced a brilliant sensation of speed throughout the ride! You typically think of Dive Coasters for their initial vertical drop, but interestingly, I actually thought that the second vertical drop on SheiKra delivered just as much as the first if not more! Overall, SheiKra was phenomenal, and a really pleasant surprise; I often said that I preferred Oblivion, but I’d now say that I comfortably prefer SheiKra, as I do feel that the added height and length really add something to it! 10/10 Wicker Man - Alton Towers: Wicker Man is a fantastic GCI coaster that I absolutely love! It may not look like much on paper, but I find it to be an enormously fun and rerideable coaster that never fails to put a huge smile on my face! I find it to be a really fast-paced coaster with some really fun twists and turns and some surprising pops of airtime, with some particular favourite elements of mine being the initial s-bend drop, where you gain brilliant speed incredibly quickly, and the big drop out of the high u-turn and following airtime hill, with both elements providing some excellent airtime that really whips you out of the seat! Overall, I find Wicker Man a hugely fun and rerideable wooden coaster with awesome airtime, twists and pacing, and I think it’s a ride that is definitely far more than the sum of its parts, personally! I decided to bump it up a few spots after my most recent visit in 2024, where it was running so well on the 2 rides I had; the airtime was kicking, the ride was blisteringly fast-paced, and it just made me laugh and smile so much! Somewhat similarly to Hagrid’s, Wicker Man just takes the raw fun factor to a whole new level for me! 10/10 Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando: I had pretty low expectations for Ice Breaker, as its reviews are generally middling to negative, but I have to say that it massively exceeded expectations for me; it was a phenomenal little ride that I absolutely loved! I should say that the much-maligned “comfort collars” have been removed, so I experienced the ride without them, but I found it to be fantastic, with a fun and punchy swing launch, a backwards spike with some brilliant floater airtime, some surprisingly excellent pops of ejector airtime in places, some fun twists and turns, and a smooth and fun ride experience throughout! The trains are a little tight to get into and out of, but I found the restraints unobtrusive when I was sat down enjoying the ride, so I didn’t find them to be an issue overall. All in all, I thought Ice Breaker was a fantastic ride that hugely exceeded my expectations; it may not have quite been my favourite coaster I rode in Florida, but I dare say that coaster-wise, it was possibly the sleeper hit of my 2023 trip in terms of how much it exceeded my expectations! I expected very little, but I ended up absolutely loving the ride, personally! 10/10 The unfortunate casualty of the most recent addition to my top 10 has been Icon, which has now dropped out. I do love Icon to bits, and it’s still just about a 10/10 tier ride for me (it’s now the lowest ranking ride in this tier), but it’s the ride that’s tended to bear the brunt of the collateral damage of new additions to my top 10 in recent years. I do love the airtime, the fun factor and the way it all flows and meshes together wonderfully and encapsulates a lot of different elements, but one thing that’s become more evident as I’ve ridden more coasters is that it lacks any particular standout “wow” elements compared to things I rank more highly. For a ride to really stand out for me these days, it has to either take the fun factor to an entirely new level (e.g. Hagrid’s, Wicker Man) or it needs a couple of real standout elements, and compared to other rides in the 10/10 tier, I don’t think Icon delivers on either of those things quite as well, so I have found it sliding down the rankings in recent years. There could be a bit of recency bias at play here, as it’s easily the 10/10 tier ride I last rode the longest ago (my last ride was in 2019), but those are my current thoughts. For those interested, my wider top 30 is currently as follows (I’ve also done a bit of rejigging here…): Mako - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal’s Islands of Adventure (10/10) Silver Star - Europa Park (10/10) Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10) Hyperia - Thorpe Park (10/10) Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (10/10) Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal’s Islands of Adventure (10/10) SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10) Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10) Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10) Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10) Stealth - Thorpe Park (9/10) Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10) Nemesis Reborn - Alton Towers (9/10) Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10) Revenge of the Mummy - Universal Studios Florida (9/10) Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios Florida (9/10) Blue Fire - Europa Park (9/10) Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10) The Swarm - Thorpe Park (8/10) Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) Kraken - SeaWorld Orlando (8/10) Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10) Rock’n’Rollercoaster - Disney’s Hollywood Studios (8/10) Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10) Thirteen - Alton Towers (8/10) Rita - Alton Towers (8/10) Eurosat CanCan Coaster - Europa Park (7/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt N Posted October 3 Report Share Posted October 3 Following my recent (well, nearly a month ago…) trip to PortAventura World in Spain to close out the year, I can now update my top 10 and top 30 yet again, with a rather big new entry at the very top being the icing on the cake… My current top 10, with a coaster count of 134, is now as follows (new in italics) : Shambhala - PortAventura Park: It’s finally happened… after 8 years, a new top dog is in town! I had very high expectations for Shambhala, and it did not disappoint; it’s an absolutely sublime coaster! As with Mako, the sustained airtime is glorious; the first drop is wonderful, and every single hill had brilliant sustained air! But there were a few little things that pushed it the distance above Mako for me. Unlike Mako, Shambhala keeps the thrills going right to the end, with every hill delivering, and as a result, I think it flows a bit better. The enhanced height and speed also really added to the ride compared to Mako and Silver Star for me, and another aspect I loved on Shambhala was the speed hill, which seemed much more notable in my mind than the similar element on Mako. Overall, though, Shambhala was just wonderful, and I loved every single one of the 7 rides I had on it while in Spain. Mako had a good 8 years at the top, but Shambhala is a very deserving successor! Mako - SeaWorld Orlando: It may not be top dog anymore, but Mako has held a special place in my heart ever since I first rode it back in 2016, and my 2023 revisit to SeaWorld (where I had 5 rides on it) reinforced my love for it! The sustained airtime is absolutely biblical (particularly in moments like the first drop, first airtime hill and speed hill), the sense of speed is wonderful, it's blissfully smooth, and overall, it's just such a fun, thrilling and rerideable coaster that I could (and indeed tried my darnedest to) sit on all day! I truly love this ride, and on my 2023 revisit to SeaWorld, it didn't disappoint! 10/10 Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal’s Islands of Adventure: It may not quite be #1, but my goodness was it close, and VelociCoaster would certainly be a worthy contender for the top spot! There is so much that this ride does well; it packs a great sense of speed throughout, with the second section in particular feeling ridiculously fast, there are quite a few sublime moments of ejector airtime that really whip you out of the seat, there are some truly brilliant inversions, and overall, it's just a truly stunning, spectacular coaster, in my view! In terms of some specific highlights; it's hard to pick from the wonderful array of sensations on offer. But if I had to choose a few, the second launch is absolutely obscene, packing a euphoric thrill like few other rides I've ever experienced, the top hat is sublime, packing some breathtaking ejector airtime on the back in particular, and the mosasaurus roll is an absolutely mind-blowing inversion that throws you out of the seat with some sublime sustained negative g-forces and ensures that you fly into the final brakes blown away! Overall, VelociCoaster is a truly stunning coaster, in my opinion; its blend of stunning airtime, impactful elements, fun, comfort and rerideability certainly make it a firm favourite of mine! 10/10 Silver Star - Europa Park: I had quite low expectations for this coaster given that it's not overly well liked, but I have to say that I was blown away; I absolutely adored this coaster! It has wonderful sustained airtime, it's smooth and comfortable, it has an awesome sense of speed, the ending is absolutely brilliant, packing some phenomenal ejector airtime (particularly the MCBR exit), and overall, this is a stunning coaster that I absolutely loved! I did rank this below Mako of the two B&M Hypers I've ridden due to my feeling that its airtime, while stunning, never has quite the same impact as some of Mako's strongest moments, in my view, and while smooth in its own right, it isn't quite as blissfully smooth as Mako. I also felt it to be slightly less consistent, as I did have 1 or 2 slightly weaker rides on it during my trip to Europa. Nonetheless, Silver Star is a stunning coaster with phenomenal sustained airtime, and I love how it is incredibly rerideable and keeps the thrills going right to the end with that awesome post-MCBR section! 10/10 Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa: This ride is phenomenal! In terms of some key strengths, it’s absolutely relentless in pacing and has some of the strongest ejector airtime I’ve ever experienced, and some of the big hitters in the layout like the first drop, outerbanked turn, death roll and wave turn are truly sensational elements that are right up there with the best, in my opinion! The first drop in particular is insane; whipping you far out of the seat with ejector airtime for a surprisingly sustained period of time never gets old! There are also some absolutely top-drawer moments of ejector airtime elsewhere in the layout, and the ride is smooth and rerideable! In terms of why I moved it up when I haven’t reridden it, this is because in retrospect, I think I was overly harsh on Iron Gwazi at the time, fixating on its very tiniest imperfections to try and quantify the slight disappointment of it not quite living up to my wildly high expectations on the very first go. This is going to sound odd, but Iron Gwazi is a coaster where the more I sit back and think about it, the more I actually love it. Thinking back, it grew on me considerably the second and third times I did it once the weight of expectation was off its shoulders, and it is genuinely a top tier ride that is more than deserving of a top 5 placement for me! 10/10 Hyperia - Thorpe Park: What a sublime ride! I was excited for Hyperia, and it did not disappoint! I love a good hyper, and Hyperia is a phenomenal one! For starters, the ride is primarily designed around weightlessness, and it delivers this excellently; you seem to spend half of the ride pinned out of the seat in some capacity! The first three big elements on the ride are an obscenely perfect sequence. The first drop is absolutely unhinged and so, so good, delivering excellent sustained ejector, the non-inverting Immelmann is sublime and offers both brilliant speed rushing up into it and top-drawer sustained ejector coming out of it, and that outerbanked turn into the inversion is wild and pins you right of your seat with top-tier sustained sideways ejector! The zero-g stall is not quite up there with the other elements, but it is still excellent, with sustained hangtime, and the final two elements after the trim were surprisingly excellent, with both the outerbanked turn and the final airtime hill delivering! Overall, then, Hyperia is an absolutely sublime coaster, in my view, and it definitely lived up to the hype for me. It’s so good to have a coaster this brilliant 2 hours from home, that I can most probably ride at least once annually! 10/10 Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park: Wodan strikes the perfect balance between pure demented insanity and amazing fun factor and rerideability, in my view! It’s an absolutely relentless coaster, with phenomenal pacing right to the end, and it has quite a few really surprising pops of ejector airtime, including an excellent first drop, but it’s also a really smooth and comfortable wooden coaster, and it just manages to be a ridiculous amount of fun! Overall, Wodan is such a fast, airtime-filled and fun coaster that I absolutely loved on my visit to Europa Park! 10/10 Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal’s Islands of Adventure: Dismiss this as a “family” coaster all you want, but I think such quick dismissal would be a huge mistake, because this ride is phenomenal, in my view! Of the rides in my top 10, I’ll admit that this one probably has the least tangible reason to be there. However, the key reason why Hagrid’s ranks so highly for me is that purely and simply, it is a phenomenally, impeccably fun roller coaster! In terms of some specifics, the low-to-the-ground turns were a lot more thrilling than I expected and the launches were surprisingly punchy and great fun, but unlike many coasters, my love of Hagrid’s is for a much broader reason than any specific features of the ride layout. It is just so, so fun, and the ride will always leave you laughing hysterically and smiling on the final brake run, and that for me is really important. Riding Hagrid’s taught me a crucial lesson about my taste in coasters; it taught me that a coaster does not necessarily need greatness in the form of tangible elements for me to love it, and that fundamentally, all a coaster needs to be is fun. Hagrid’s is not the most intense ride by any means, but if you want pure fun, I’d struggle to recommend many better coasters than this one! 10/10 SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa: I had remembered liking this ride back in 2016, but my reride in 2023 was even better than I’d previously remembered! I love a B&M Dive Coaster, and this was a fantastic one! The sustained airtime over both drops was absolutely phenomenal, and the sheer size of them produced a brilliant sensation of speed throughout the ride! You typically think of Dive Coasters for their initial vertical drop, but interestingly, I actually thought that the second vertical drop on SheiKra delivered just as much as the first if not more! Overall, SheiKra was phenomenal, and a really pleasant surprise; I often said that I preferred Oblivion, but I’d now say that I comfortably prefer SheiKra, as I do feel that the added height and length really add something to it! 10/10 Wicker Man - Alton Towers: Wicker Man is a fantastic GCI coaster that I absolutely love! It may not look like much on paper, but I find it to be an enormously fun and rerideable coaster that never fails to put a huge smile on my face! I find it to be a really fast-paced coaster with some really fun twists and turns and some surprising pops of airtime, with some particular favourite elements of mine being the initial s-bend drop, where you gain brilliant speed incredibly quickly, and the big drop out of the high u-turn and following airtime hill, with both elements providing some excellent airtime that really whips you out of the seat! Overall, I find Wicker Man a hugely fun and rerideable wooden coaster with awesome airtime, twists and pacing, and I think it’s a ride that is definitely far more than the sum of its parts, personally! I decided to bump it up a few spots after my most recent visit in 2024, where it was running so well on the 2 rides I had; the airtime was kicking, the ride was blisteringly fast-paced, and it just made me laugh and smile so much! Somewhat similarly to Hagrid’s, Wicker Man just takes the raw fun factor to a whole new level for me! 10/10 Shambhala was the only ride at PortAventura to make my top 10. I had an outside hope that Red Force might make it in there based on some of the more positive comments I’d heard about it, but alas, it was “only” top 20 material for me! Perhaps controversially, I actually ended up marginally preferring Stealth… In terms of the top 30 following PortAventura, this now looks as follows (new in bold) : Shambhala - PortAventura Park (10/10) Mako - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal’s Islands of Adventure (10/10) Silver Star - Europa Park (10/10) Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10) Hyperia - Thorpe Park (10/10) Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (10/10) Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal’s Islands of Adventure (10/10) SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10) Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10) Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10) Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10) Stealth - Thorpe Park (9/10) Red Force - Ferrari Land (9/10) Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10) Nemesis Reborn - Alton Towers (9/10) Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10) Revenge of the Mummy - Universal Studios Florida (9/10) Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios Florida (9/10) Blue Fire - Europa Park (9/10) Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10) The Swarm - Thorpe Park (8/10) Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) Kraken - SeaWorld Orlando (8/10) Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10) Rock’n’Rollercoaster - Disney’s Hollywood Studios (8/10) Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10) Uncharted: El Enigma de Penitence - PortAventura Park (8/10) Another surprise contender since my last update that only narrowly missed out, sitting in the #32 spot, was Gold Rush at Drayton Manor! That was an unexpectedly excellent family coaster! It has been an excellent year for me, on the whole. It’s been my most cred-tastic year ever, with 23 new credits ridden this year in total (the first time I’ve ever gone over 20 new credits in a year!), and I’ve also had 2 new top 10 additions in Shambhala and Hyperia (not quite as good as last year, where I had 4 new top 10 additions and a resurgent previously ridden coaster that re-entered my top 10 after a particularly strong performance on my revisit, but still pretty good, in my view!). For those interested, I would rank all 23 new coasters I rode this year as follows: Shambhala - PortAventura Park (10/10, #1/134) Hyperia - Thorpe Park (10/10, #6/134) Red Force - Ferrari Land (9/10, #15/134) Uncharted: El Enigma de Penitence - PortAventura Park (8/10, #30/134) Gold Rush - Drayton Manor (8/10, #32/134) Roller Coaster - Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach (7/10, #39/134) Dragon Khan - PortAventura Park (6/10, #50/134) Minifigure Speedway (Legends) - Legoland Windsor (5/10, #65/134) Minifigure Speedway (Allstars) - Legoland Windsor (5/10, #66/134) El Diablo: Tren de la Mina - PortAventura Park (5/10, #67/134) Tomahawk - PortAventura Park (5/10, #68/134) Furius Baco - PortAventura Park (4/10, #87/134) Stampida (Red) - PortAventura Park (4/10, #88/134) Stampida (Blue) - PortAventura Park (4/10, #89/134) Spook Express - Joyland Children’s Fun Park (4/10, #95/134) Tami Tami - PortAventura Park (4/10, #96/134) Egg-Spress - Pleasurewood Hills (4/10, #101/134) Cannonball Express - Pleasurewood Hills (3/10, #108/134) Wipeout - Pleasurewood Hills (3/10,#112/134) Whirlwind - Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach (3/10, #114/134) Big Apple - Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach (3/10, #118/134) Family Star - Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach (2/10, #127/134) Tyrolean Tubtwist - Joyland Children’s Fun Park (1/10, #134/134) I’m not sensing that next year will be quite as fruitful due to me having to do an MSc dissertation over the summer, but me and my parents are still pondering another new foreign park visit next year, so who knows! 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Matt 236 Posted November 1 Report Share Posted November 1 Suppose I should update some of my top 10 stuff, following that Cali trip. Coasters: 1/ Steel Vengeance 2/ Veloci-coaster 3/ Zadra 4/ Toutatis 5/ Mako 6/ X2 7/ Hyperion 8/ Voltron 9/ Hyperia 10/ Nemesis Reborn Dark rides: 1/ Tower of Terror WDW 2/ Rise Of The Resistance 3/ Indiana Jones- Disneyland 4/ Guardians Mission Breakout 5/ Pirates In Batavia 6/ Pirates Of The Caribbean Disney Cali 7/ Forbidden Journey 8/ Phantom Manor 9/ Runaway Railway 10/ Symbolica Theme parks 1/ Europa Park 2/ Universal Orlando 3/ Cedar Point 4/ Disneyland Resort 5/ Phantasialand 6/ Disney World 7/ Energylandia 8/ Six Flags Magic Mountain 9/ Parc Asterix 10/ Disneyland Paris TLDR, Wonder Woman was my 300th coaster. Cal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted November 6 Author Report Share Posted November 6 I think I'm done for the year to be honest. First off the new rides of 2024 list. This won't include Nemesis Reborn cos.. well it isn't all new. Coaster enthusiasm is complicated. 1. Voltron. An incredible ride, fully kicks your arse, full of ejector time and a sheer masterclass of ride design. 2. Taiga. A true bucket list ride and it delivered on every level. By far my favourite Intamin, this is just absolute excellence. 3. Fury 325. I really enjoyed Fury 325. I see why people call it their favourite B&M because it is an excellent ride. So so fast. 4. Afterburn. A very under-rated inverter. It's a very European style B&M with no MCBR and very intense. 5. Thunderhead. I loved this ride so much. It was honestly such a surprise to me because it's full of air-time, long and twisty and so re-ridable. I could have ridden all day 6. Hyperia. This probably wouldn't be so high if it wasn't for it being in the UK to be honest. It really lacks that final something that the very best rollercoasters have. I find it more and more frustrating the more I ride. 7. Copperhead Strike. I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed Copperhead to be honest. It has some bizarre pacing but it is a lot of fun. 8. Aerieforce One. The joy of this ride is that it's very easy to ride. Literally no one visits this park so you can get a quick ten rides in an hour and then be on your way. It's a great RMC and surprisingly high on my list. 9. Goliath (Six Flags over Georgia). Fantasic B&M. Has a lot of ejector air time and a really vicious ending that I LOVED. Its worth a visit to over Georgia for this ride alone. 10. La Fianna Force. I'd heard how great this ride was and.. it is. It's so well paced and jam packed with intensity. The restraints are so freeing and un-restricting. You'll love it like I did. And finally.. the top ten of 2024. 1. Steel Vengeance (first ridden 2018). Yes.. the top ride for 2023 remains my favourite. We had several rides back in July and it more then lived up to my memory. We had some incredible rides with people we met in the queue for this during our night rides. They were so much fun. American theme parks just sort of.. encourage talking. This happened a lot. 2. Nemesis Reborn. (first ridden in 2024 or 2004 depending on your point of view). Nemesis has slipped to number two for the simple reason that Vengeance is just better. Nemesis Reborn still lives up to the original. I think it's astounding that it's just picked up where the original left off. I don't feel the roughness, I just sit there and enjoy a masterpiece of rollercoaster design. No other Inverter is so loved and respected. I saw this described as a legacy coaster. And it really is. 3. Ride to Happiness. (first ridden in 2022). This felt like Mack really giving it their all. Well it did at the time. This is a spectacular ride which rides differently every single time. I'm looking forward to going back and riding again. 4. Voltron (first ridden in 2024). I think Voltron is outstanding. It's already my top ride from the new for 2024. But it really is incredible and confirms to me that Mack are at the forefront of rollercoaster design. Any park that buys a Mack deserves to be noticed and rides like Voltron are why. 5. Taiga. (first ridden in 2024). Following up from before, I love Taiga. it's my favourite Intamin because it has an outstanding layout that constantly surprises. I love diving up and down the hillside, the ejector air time, the beautiful blue track winding around itself. Linnamaki is so easy to get to so I shall be back.. 6. Toutatis (first ridden in 2023). Another excellent Intamin slipping only slightly. I find Toutatis so unbelievably rerideable and so much fun. Pack Asterix run it superbly which really helps. A must do. 7. Fury 325. (First ridden in 2024). What I really appreciated about Fury was the operations. Cedar Fair can be a hit and miss with their operations. Fury was the ride that did operations right with an engaged and efficient ride crew that went out of their way to fill every seat and keep the queue moving. 8. Baron 1898. (First ridden in 2017). This of course isn't the best B&M dive machine ever with its chill heights and short layout. but the theme just sells to me every single time. Their dedication to still doing the train ticket loading is amazing because other parks would have ditched that years ago. It always delivers as well, with the ride being slightlier punchier every time I go. 9. Wildcats Revenge (First ridden in 2023). A fantastic RMC that went surprisingly under the radar when it was being constructed but has sometime how opened to be a full on favourite. 10. Blue Fire (First ridden in 2010). This ride somehow still stands up. Its still smooth, its still run more efficiently then any other rollercoaster I've ever ridden. It's not as impressive to me as it once was but that's purely because Mack are at a whole different level. But without Blue Fire, we wouldn't have Voltron, Copperhead or Ride to Happiness. See ya in 2025 Cal and JoshC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted 22 hours ago Report Share Posted 22 hours ago It has been 2 and a half years since I shared my favourite coasters on TPM, so let's fix that. These days, I've focused on sharing a "Top 10%", because I think that encapsulates the upper echelon of my rides, rather than a Top 10, which is very restrictive and reserved for the 'best of the best', and doesn't see as many additions. I'm currently on 408 coasters, so here's my Top 40... Rank Coaster Park 1 Toutatis Parc Asterix 2 Taron Phantasialand 3 Taiga Linnanmäki 4 Untamed Walibi Holland 5 Skyrush Hersheypark 6 Helix Liseberg 7 Oz'Iris Parc Asterix 8 Balder Liseberg 9 Lost Gravity Walibi Holland 10 Der Schwur des Kärnan Hansa Park 11 Phoenix Knoebels 12 Hyperia Thorpe Park 13 Jersey Devil Coaster Six Flags Great Adventure 14 Joris en de Draak (Water) Efteling 14 Joris en de Draak (Vuur) Efteling 15 Colossos - Kampf der Giganten Heide Park 16 Goliath Walibi Holland 17 Manta SeaWorld Abu Dhabi 18 Kingda Ka Six Flags Great Adventure 19 Candymonium Hersheypark 20 Nemesis Alton Towers 21 El Toro (SFGAd) Six Flags Great Adventure 22 Troy Toverland 23 Black Mamba Phantasialand 24 Mahuka Walibi Rhône-Alpes 25 Fønix Fårup Sommerland 26 Flying Aces Ferrari World Abu Dhabi 27 Hyperion Energylandia 28 Lisebergbanan Liseberg 29 Van Helsing's Factory Movie Park Germany 30 Pulsar Walibi Belgium 31 Juvelen Djurs Sommerland 32 Batman Gotham City Escape Parque Warner Madrid 33 Voltron Europa Park 34 Silver Star Europa Park 35 Shambhala PortAventura Park 36 Nitro (SFGAd) Six Flags Great Adventure 37 Nemesis Inferno Thorpe Park 38 Storm - The Dragon Legend TusenFryd 39 Colorado Adventure Phantasialand 40 The Storm Coaster Dubai Hills Mall Some scattered thoughts on the list... -Toutatis is incredible. That swing launch is brilliant, and the aggressive airtime throughout is my bag. -Taiga doesn't see much light in people's Top 10s or similar, likely because not as many people have ridden it. It's a crying shame. See Mark's thoughts above, I would just echo that. -Similar, Manta at Sea World Abu Dhabi would be talked about a lot as an elite coaster if more people had ridden it. -B&M Hypers are great rides, but they offer a very specific experience: a fun-filled, floaty, long ride experience. Very enjoyable, but not what I want. There's a very obvious trend with many of my top-top rides having airtime which flings you into your lapbar; B&M Hypers rarely do this with aggression, hence their ranking on the lower side. -Mahuka and Juvelen are excellent examples of the perfect family thrill coaster. I don't use the word perfect often. But these are rides which are that very definition. They're also quite low in terms of height, and the ride types have a lot of versatility. Their respective parks - moreso Djurs Sommerland - are extremely easy to get to as well. -We know height and speed aren't everything when it comes to coasters, but Kingda Ka shows that big and fast can be enough. RIP. (On the flip side, Red Force shows that big and fast can be a recipe for a rough ride which isn't worth its own time) -Voltron is incredibly intense, but I found that it wasn't exactly comfortable during any major turn / transition. It's a shame, as if it was more comfortable, it would be much higher up. -On that note, I haven't ridden Lost Gravity in 5 years. I fully expect that (along with some others in this list) to shift down the ranks following re-rides, especially as my tastes have developed and changed. But I only rank rides on the experiences I've had, and my rides on Lost Gravity were always glorious and I loved them so much. -Yes, Hyperia is that good to me. -And on a final note, Storm at TusenFryd. A Gerstlauer inverted swing launch coaster, which basically repeats the same 3 inversions through its layout. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, BUT it's a ton of fun. Another coaster that many won't ride, and understandably so (especially given TusenFryd's poor reputation, which from my experience, is unjustified...it's a lovely park). But if you get the chance, it's a lovely coaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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