What is your mentality towards riding kiddie coasters?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. If you do coaster counting, one means that many enthusiasts tend to resort to in order to up their coaster count is riding kiddie coasters. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that enthusiasts tend to have different mentalities towards riding kiddie coasters and the level of care they have about getting kiddie coaster credits. Some have the mentality of “cred’s a cred”, and will travel very long distances to get the latest big apple or go-gator added to RCDB, while others tend to confine their kiddie coaster riding to when they’re available in larger parks, or even don’t ride kiddie coasters at all in some cases. So my question to you today is; what’s your mentality towards riding kiddie coasters?

 

Tell you what, I’ll split this into some categories:

• Category A; I’ll always ride kiddie creds, regardless of distance or surrounding attractions. I want the +1s!
• Category B; I’ll ride kiddie creds if they’re close to my location or a location I’m visiting, but I wouldn’t travel any long distance for them.
• Category C; I‘ll ride kiddie creds if they’re in a larger park I’m making a broader visit to, but I would never visit a park with the sole purpose of riding a kiddie cred.
• Category D; I don’t generally ride kiddie creds at all.

Which category do you fall into?

 

Personally, I’m going to be controversial and say that I actually fall into Category D; I don’t generally ride kiddie creds at all. I think “never” is a strong word, but these days, I practically always avoid them. I did try taking a Category C mentality for a bit, hence why things like Troublesome Trucks and Octonauts sit in my count, but I was discouraged from this after various embarrassing experiences on kiddie coasters, and I now sit firmly in the camp of “I don’t do kiddie coasters”. In fact, when totting up the potential credit tally from a new park, I exclude kiddie coasters by default these days. For instance, while Europa has 13 credits in total, I’ve always done my cred maths assuming I’ll be getting 12 coaster credits on my April trip (assuming no major reliability issues or crowds or anything, of course), because I just remove B-a-a-a from my mind.

 

I get why people do kiddie coasters, and I have no objection to people doing kiddie coasters, but I personally find that the embarrassment outweighs the good feeling from the +1 for me, and even excluding that, I’ve personally settled into the mindset that I’d rather do a more significant non-coaster within a park, or a re-ride on a coaster I particularly liked, than do a kiddie cred. And even if I had less issue with doing kiddie creds, I wouldn’t ever see myself edging higher than Category C or B, personally; I’m not sure I ever see myself doing long road trips with the sole intention of riding kiddie coasters. But I don’t judge those who do; each to their own, of course, and you will always have the upper hand over me cred count-wise!

 

But which category do you fall into when it comes to your mentality towards riding kiddie coasters?

[Mark9]

I'll ride them if I'm in the park and they have a short queue. In parks I visit regularly, sure I'll ride (Baaa Express at Europa Park for example). But say I'm at Kings Island, there's 14 rollercoasters to get on, I'm there one day in total. I won't be going out of my way to ride the Great Pumpkin Coaster as the bigger, more unique rides are far higher a priority. Our to put it this way, I wouldn't rush to Legoland Windsor to ride the Duplo coaster.

 

So category C in general.

 

 

[Benin]

A.

 

No shame.

 

Unless I'm not physically allowed to ride it, such as Jellikins (which a certain member of the forum CAN ride).

[RobF]

You missed a category, you ride them as you have kids ……

[JoshC.]

I'd say Category B.

 

I do my best to ride all of them, and would tack them on to a trip. But I don't have the time, money or inclination to travel way out of my way for a Wacky Worm for now.

[Matt N]

On 3/5/2022 at 6:21 AM, RobF said:

You missed a category, you ride them as you have kids ……

My apologies… I didn’t really consider that. It’s been added!

[Mark9]

On 3/5/2022 at 6:21 AM, RobF said:

You missed a category, you ride them as you have kids ……

 

Nothing gives me greater satisfaction in knowing kids have to wait longer because me and my friends are taking up several row on the octonaughts rollercoaster.

[RobF]

I can imagine it now …..Daddy….. what are those silly people doing without kids they are to big for this ride ….

 

Daddies reply…. There just big babies and to scared for the big rides