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What is your favourite non-Merlin UK coaster?


Matt N

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Hi guys. In the UK theme park industry, Merlin theme parks are a very dominant force, and this is arguably most apparent in the arena of roller coaster hardware. If you were to ask an average enthusiast what their favourite UK coaster is, there’s a good chance that it would be at a Merlin theme park, and I dare say that most people’s UK top 10s would be relatively saturated with Merlin-operated coasters, with parks like Alton Towers and Thorpe Park in particular arguably having two of the UK’s most revered thrill coaster selections. With this in mind, I’d be intrigued to know; what is your favourite UK coaster not located at a theme park operated by Merlin Entertainments? Of the coasters at independent UK parks and UK parks owned by smaller chains such as Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Drayton Manor, Oakwood, Paultons Park, Flamingo Land, Fantasy Island, and numerous others, which is your favourite?

 

As for my own answer to this thread, my recent first visit to Flamingo Land, and my first ride on Sik in particular, got me thinking about what my favourite non-Merlin UK coasters actually are.

 

My favourite non-Merlin UK coaster is quite comfortably Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which is actually my favourite UK coaster even including Merlin parks, as well as my #8 overall out of 107 ridden coasters. I love the airtime, I love the fun twists and turns, I love the inversions, I love the smoothness and comfortable restraints… I just think it does a number of things very, very well! I know that liking Icon is a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I absolutely love it!

 

After that, though, only two other non-Merlin coasters actually slot into my UK top 10, meaning that non-Merlin coasters make up 3 of my UK top 10. With this in mind, my top 3 non-Merlin UK coasters, and the 3 that make my overall UK top 10, are:

  1. Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10, UK #1, #8/107 overall)
  2. Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10, UK #8, #22/107 overall)
  3. Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10, UK #9, #25/107 overall)

If you’re interested, my overall UK top 10 (with non-Merlin rides highlighted in bold) is:

  1. Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10, #8/107 overall)
  2. Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10, #10/107 overall)
  3. Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10, #11/107 overall)
  4. Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10, #17/107 overall)
  5. Rita - Alton Towers (9/10, #18/107 overall)
  6. Stealth - Thorpe Park (8/10, #19/107 overall)
  7. Nemesis - Alton Towers (8/10, #20/107 overall)
  8. Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10, #22/107 overall)
  9. Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10, #25/107 overall)
  10. Thirteen - Alton Towers (7/10, #28/107 overall)

But I’d be interested to know; what is your favourite non-Merlin UK coaster?

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Icon, Speed and Megafobia are up there. I like Shockwave but it isn't a favourite. I'll go with Icon just because its fun and accessible to a lot of people. 

 

I like the directions that Paultons and Drayton are heading in, if they could add something like Juvelen that could easily become my favourite non Merlin rollercoaster.

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From the Cred Sheet, here's all my ranked UK coasters not including Merlin parks, including their overall ranking in my list:
 

Rank Coaster Park
46 Grand National Blackpool Pleasure Beach
53 Cobra (Paultons) Paultons Park
68 Storm Chaser Paultons Park
93 Icon Blackpool Pleasure Beach
95 Velocity Flamingo Land
96 Kumali Flamingo Land
97 Wilde Maus XXL Winter Wonderland
106 Accelerator Drayton Manor
113 Avalanche Blackpool Pleasure Beach
115 Revolution (BPB) Blackpool Pleasure Beach
117 Spinning Racer Fantasy Island
118 G Force Drayton Manor
119 Velociraptor Paultons Park
126 Mumbo Jumbo Flamingo Land
136 Flight of the Pterosaur Paultons Park
147 Millenium Fantasy Island
158 Rage Adventure Island
162 Big Dipper Blackpool Pleasure Beach
163 Ice Mountain Winter Wonderland
166 Odyessy Fantasy Island
167 Big One Blackpool Pleasure Beach
169 Rhombus Rocket Fantasy Island
176 Rockin Roller Botton's Pleasure Beach
181 Infusion Blackpool Pleasure Beach
182 Olympia Looping Winter Wonderland
183 Dinosaur Valley Wicksteed Park
186 €uro Coaster Winter Wonderland
193 Shockwave Drayton Manor
199 Hero Flamingo Land


Also includes travelling coasters I've ridden in the UK, but oh well.

tl;dr - my answer is Grand National at Blackpool.

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