My Top 10 coasters- in pictures- click on the review of the coaster to see the picture!
#1-Riverside Cyclone. This thing is more wild than any steel I've ever been on-and it's wood! A 70 ft. drop into a 60 degree banked curve is my favorite part. But once you really get into the ride you almost blank out because there are steep drops, awesome curves, and all done at mind numbing speed! Ride this-it's a must!
#2-Big Bad Wolf. This is the best of the arrow suspendeds by far! First it takes you through a German village dodging houses and barrels, and many other things. Then up the second lift, and a quick left turn and 100 ft. drop nearly missing the Rhine River! This is a must ride at night-after a rain!
#3-Comet. The Great Escape has long been one of my favorite parks, and the Comet just makes it even better. A nice drop and many small airtime and lateral filled hills cover this 1948 Herb Schmeck coaster classic! The view of the Adirondacks from this thing is great, too!
#4-Lakeside Cyclone. When you enter this free admission park you will be amazed at how great this place is! Very light crowds on a sunday afternoon. When you walk through Lakeside you feel like you're walking through the past, this is art deco to the letter. A good assortment of rides is found here including one of my favorite flat rides, Loop-o-Plane. The Dodgems were nice as well as the classic train ride. The Cyclone is an ACE coaster classic, no seat dividers, no headrest, no ratcheting lap bars, only a classic 1940 train. You first enter a tunnel which, even though not highspeed, it is still fun. I love the drop on this, especcially near the front. There are some nice spots of air on this ride, but even better are the laterals, this is an oval layout, with very nice lateral hills, and that curve over the water almost yanks you out of your seat. Very fun, not disorientating, and a good long ride at that.
#5-Minderaser, Elitch Gardens. Although this is a typical Vekoma SLC, it has no headbanging at all like the others do. I really like the intensity of this as well as all the inversions. This is overall my favorite looper! The foot chopping effects are nice, too.
#6-Drachenfire. This is by far the most unusual arrow looper. Most of the elements are first or one of a kind elements. After the "silent" 150 ft. lift, you do a half corkscrew 120 ft. in the air as part of the hill. Then a nice spiraling drop, into an airtime camelback, a 2 inversion batwing, and then the mid course brake run. Then you go into my favorite inversion I've ever been through, the cutback. The last elemnt is a wraparound corkscrew and a couple of helixes with good head chopping effects. Too bad they took out an inversion, rachenfire used to have 6, but riders came off complaining of neck and back pains so they had to take it out. But still this is a very fun ride-with no line!
#7-Alpengeist. This is the largest of all Bolliger and Malbillard's Inverters to this date. 195 ft. tall and a 170 ft. spiral drop start this coaster off. Then it goes through a Immelman, Vertical loop, Cobra Roll (2 inversions), a nice steep dive into a ski shack, then a zero-G roll, and a flat spin. Although that sounds intense, it's really not, and it's as smooth as glass, you really don't feel a change in the G's around the loops, which is one thing I didn't like about this ride. But what this thing lacks in intensity it makes up for in speed. This thing is FAST!
Another picture of Alpengeist, click here.
#8-(tie)Wild Mouse and Predetor. The Wild Mouse is a fun little production model coaster found at many parks around the USA, but my favotire is at Lakeside. This is very fun, fast, nice airtime and head chopping effects, and all with NO restraint. The Wild Mouse at Busch Gardens is also fun, but since it has restraints it loses a point. The Pretor is a very peppy double out-and-back located at Darien Lake. This coaster has nice airtime and laterals, and is one of the prettiest, with it's reflection on the lake. The end keeps up it's speed and is going very fast leading into the final brake run.
#9-Riverside Thunderbolt. Although it isn't that tall, this thing packs a punch. Nice airtime and speed, but what surprises me is that it goes through it's 2,800 ft. of track in 1 minute! Very speedy!
#10-Loch Ness Monster. Quite possibly the most beautiful coaster in the world taking up the heart of Busch Gardens, and built over their Rhine River. A nice steep hill over the water starts this one off, following a curve and interlocking loops. The tunnel is fun, but the best part is when you go when they have three trains run, because two will meet at the interlocking loops. it's really neat to see your train almost colliding with another through loops. Very fun.
Click here to read a comic strip that I really liked!
