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1: Hyperion, Energylandia
2: Helix, Liseberg
3: Taiga, Linnanmäki
4: Zadra, Energylandia
5: Untamed, Walibi Holland
6: Toutatis, Parc Astérix
7: Schwur Des Kärnan, Hansa Park
8: Kondaa, Walibi Belgium
9: Wildfire, Kolmården
10: Shambhala, Port Aventura Park
11: Taron, Phantasialand
12: Batman: Gotham City Escape, Parque Warner Madrid
13: The Ride to Happiness, Plopsaland DePanne
14: Hyperia, Thorpe Park
15: Wodan Timbur Coaster, Europa Park
Cu Chulainn has fallen out of top 25. Nothing else has changed numbers #16-25 other than all coasters placed under BGCE have dropped one place.
My week-long Northeast extravaganza has come to a close, and with it I’m welcoming a whopping… one coaster to the top 20? Ok, so some stuff didn’t hit quite as hard as I’d hoped, but I’m still grateful to have pretty much completed New England, if only so that next time I visit I can focus solely on non-coaster outings.
1: Voyage
2: Project 305
3: Iron Gwazi
4: Steel Vengeance
5: Toutatis
6: Skyrush
7: Arie Force One
8: Velocicoaster
9: Fury 325
10: El Toro
11: Phantom’s Revenge
12: Expedition GeForce
13: Ravine Flyer II
14: Pantheon
15: Wildcat’s Revenge
16: Legend
17: Maverick 18: Boulder Dash
19: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
20: Raven
I went into more detail in my post in the Last Cred Review thread, but in short, these are two lovely airtime machines elevated by on board audio and many wonderful dueling moments. I have a feeling these will be the rides I find myself coming back to the most at Epic Universe.
According to Captain Coaster, my top 10 should be:
Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa
VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure
Shambhala - PortAventura Park
Hyperia - Thorpe Park
Mako - SeaWorld Orlando
Nemesis Reborn - Alton Towers
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure
Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa
Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park
Manta - SeaWorld Orlando
My actual top 10 is:
Shambhala - PortAventura Park
Mako - SeaWorld Orlando
VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure
Silver Star - Europa Park
Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa
Hyperia - Thorpe Park
Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure
SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa
Wicker Man - Alton Towers
So overall then, I'd say I at very least strongly like most of what Captain Coaster suggests my top 10 "should" be according to popular consensus. The ones that aren't in my top 10 mostly loiter somewhere in my top 20, with the only glaring exception that I don't overly rate at all being Manta (which languishes down at #78/134 for me).
Interestingly, Captain Coaster's consensus seems to think that I rate Silver Star (should be my #13, is my #4), SheiKra (should be my #15, is my #9) and particularly Wicker Man (should be my #27, is my #10) notably too highly, of the things in my top 10!
According to Captain Coaster, my top 10 should be:
Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa
VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure
Shambhala - PortAventura Park
Hyperia - Thorpe Park
Mako - SeaWorld Orlando
Nemesis Reborn - Alton Towers
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure
Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa
Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park
Manta - SeaWorld Orlando
My actual top 10 is:
Shambhala - PortAventura Park
Mako - SeaWorld Orlando
VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure
Silver Star - Europa Park
Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa
Hyperia - Thorpe Park
Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure
SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa
Wicker Man - Alton Towers
So overall then, I'd say I at very least strongly like most of what Captain Coaster suggests my top 10 "should" be according to popular consensus. The ones that aren't in my top 10 mostly loiter somewhere in my top 20, with the only glaring exception that I don't overly rate at all being Manta (which languishes down at #78/134 for me).
Interestingly, Captain Coaster's consensus seems to think that I rate Silver Star (should be my #13, is my #4), SheiKra (should be my #15, is my #9) and particularly Wicker Man (should be my #27, is my #10) notably too highly, of the things in my top 10!
1. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point
2. Maverick - Cedar Point
3. X2 - Six Flags Magic Mountain
4. Millennium Force - Cedar Point
5. Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland
6. Tatsu - Six Flags Magic Mountain
7. Wonder Woman: Flight Of Courage - Six Flags Magic Mountain
8. Behemoth - Canada's Wonderland
9. Yukon Striker - Canada's Wonderland
10. Full Throttle - Six Flags Magic Mountain
VERSUS:
My actual top 10 (rides not on the previous list in bold):
1. Maverick, Cedar Point
2. Full Throttle, Six Flags Magic Mountain
3. Leviathan, Canada's Wonderland
4. Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
5. X2, Six Flags Magic Mountain
6. Raptor, Cedar Point
7. Vortex, Canada's Wonderland
8. Millennium Force, Cedar Point
9. Rougarou, Cedar Point
10. GateKeeper, Cedar Point.
(Yes, SteVe is below Leviathan, Full Throttle, and Maverick, so what? way too overhyped, so I was not that impressed, but I was still impressed. Maybe it's because I rode in the front row, but eh.)
I got this far and then realised there were about 10 coasters I could pick for the next 5 spots and I couldn't do it. Icon, Stealth, Daemonen, Nemesis Inferno, Swarm, Sik, Megafobia, Speed Monster, Wicker Man, Smiler and Rutschtebanen are all in the conversation as I have a lot of "good, but not elite" credits and basically how the **** do I figure out where they all go when there's coasters I haven't done in over 10 years or only did once or twice but enjoyed a lot? The idea is that this year I might be able to actually form a top ten.
X2 - Six Flags Magic Mountain - this ride is absolutely bonkers. I'm not surprised that there aren't more of these insane contraptions in the world. The 1 train ops are absolutely dreadful and I really hope SFMM has it in their future budget to get a 3rd train for this so it can run on 2 trains during the peak season. It was posting 70-120 min waits all weekend long and this is the off season. That being said, this ride is like flying and getting into a car crash at the same time. Its insane. That first drop alone is worth the price of admission lol.
Arie Force One - Fun Spot Atlanta
Twisted Timbers - Kings Dominion
The Ride to Happiness - Plopsaland de Panne
El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa
And rounding out the top 20
Twisted Colossus - Six Flags Magic Mountain - My first ride on this was a nighttime double duel, which is pretty insane. The visuals of racing the train make this ride a lot more fun. I'm glad West Coast Racers solved that problem a few years later. Unfortunately my other two rides were not dueling rides so it wasn't nearly as good but at its core, the ride is still world class. Its also nice to ride an RMC that isn't 100% relentless.
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)
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)
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!
Following my recent revisit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach for the first time since 2019, a previous favourite crept its way back into the top 10, and I decided to do some general housekeeping and rearranging in my rankings.
As such, my updated top 10 with descriptions is now as follows (movements underlined):
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!
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! 10/10I moved VelociCoaster above Mako because in retrospect, I think it’s probably the ride I think the most about from my 2023 Florida trip, and riding Shambhala perhaps made some of Mako’s relative weak spots more apparent. In terms of VelociCoaster, though, that second front row ride in particular still sticks out to me as one of my most breathtaking rides ever… holy moly! I was physically shaking after that second front row ride…
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
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
Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Going back to Icon after 6 years, I did wonder whether I’d still loved it as much as I did in 2019… but if anything, I only loved it more! Icon is not a massively intense ride, but I just find it a huge amount of fun! There’s a great amount of airtime to be had on the ride, for a start; the top hat at the beginning really shines, but the other great moments like the twisty sequence down into the second launch and the junior Immelmann also stand out, amongst others! There’s also some lovely hangtime, with both the first roll and the junior Immelmann providing just the right amount of floatiness without feeling sickly! The twisty layout also keeps the ride feeling interesting, in my view; I ride Icon feeling like I’m twisting and floating all over the place, and I find it so much fun! It’s also so smooth and rerideable with comfortable restraints, and overall, I just find it an immensely enjoyable coaster that definitely remains deserving of a top 10 spot despite me having previously demoted it to #12! 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
I’ve also made a few wider changes within my top 30, and it is now as follows (changes in italics):
Shambhala - PortAventura Park (10/10)
Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal’s Islands of Adventure (10/10)
SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10)(In retrospect, I don’t think the gulf between SheiKra and Oblivion was quite as large as I made out, and I’m not sure if SheiKra was quite 10/10 tier material… I’d honestly put SheiKra and Oblivion quite close together!)
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)
Red Force - Ferrari Land (9/10)(For some reason, I felt a bit happier with Red Force being situated below the 3 inverts rather than right behind Stealth… I felt this was a bit more reflective of my feeling towards it.)
Revenge of the Mummy - Universal Studios Florida (9/10)
Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10)
The Swarm - Thorpe Park (9/10) (I’ve always had a real soft spot for Swarm, despite those restraints… so I felt that a 9/10 tier placement was maybe more fitting than an 8/10!)
Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (9/10) (I don’t know if Oakwood closing has made me all misty-eyed and nostalgic, but in hindsight, Megafobia was actually really fun and rerideable on my last experience overall… despite the rougher back row, those front row rides were very enjoyable, and are making me thinking that a 9/10 tier placement might be more fitting!)
Blue Fire - Europa Park (8/10)(Riding Icon again recently and seeing how much more I feel towards it than I did towards Blue Fire made me feel like an 8/10 tier placement might be more fitting for Blue Fire… it was really decent, don’t get me wrong, but I felt strangely cold towards it, and didn’t quite gel with it, if you get what I mean.)
Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10)
Kraken - SeaWorld Orlando (8/10)
Rock’n’Rollercoaster - Disney’s Hollywood Studios (8/10)
Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10)
Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10)
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios Florida (8/10) (I’ve started to wonder if my love of the theming on this has made me rank it excessively for a very long time… I love the overall experience of Gringotts, but when I actually think about the weakness of the actual coaster element, I do perhaps feel that a 9/10 tier placement and a spot in my top 20 coasters was maybe a tad excessive.)
Uncharted: El Enigma de Penitence - PortAventura Park (8/10)
It’s really weird how going on one park trip and riding some coasters for the first time in a few years can make you rethink everything! Does anyone else find that riding one ride can, oddly, make you rethink your opinion of a totally different ride in a totally different park?
I also find it really interesting how hard reconciling head and heart makes some of these ranking decisions… my head and my heart are sometimes pulling me in very different directions on these rides!
Given my indecisiveness, chances are that some of the placements in this list could also be totally different on a different day… and chances are that I’ll rearrange it again at some point! I don’t think I’ll ever be truly happy with the order of my coaster rankings…
Had a fantastic trip a couple of weeks back, with a couple of new top 20 worthy creds, new in Bold;
1 - ArieForce One - Fun Spot Atlanta
2 - Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point
3 - Twisted Timbers - Kings Dominion
4 - Zadra - Energylandia
5 - El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
6 - Wildcat's Revenge - Hersheypark 7 - Untamed - Walibi Holland - The back row ride was fantastic, and it was just an afternoon ride in coldish temps, can imagine this is even better after a warm day in the dark.
8 - Taron - Phantasialand
9 - Phoenix - Knoebels 10 - Lightning Rod (V1) - Dollywood
11 - Helix - Liseberg 12 - Kondaa - Walibi Belgium - I do have a slight issue with that non inverting cobra roll, it's a bit weird and drops it down a few places, everything else is magical though, brilliant. Possibly one of my favourite first drops, it's this, GeForce or Toro.
13 - Ride to Happiness - Plopsaland
14 - Fury 325 - Carowinds
15 - Renegade - Valleyfair
16 - The Voyage - Holiday World
17 - Shambhala - PortAventura
18 - Goliath - Six Flags over Georgia
19 - Exbedition GeForce - Holiday Park
20 - Skyrush (V1) - Hersheypark
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