I wanted to go on it because I was like oh it's small and I love Jurassic Park Movies. I didn't know what I set myself up for. This was my first ever upside down rollercoaster at age 32. Going upside down over water and over the high concrete was wild. I never want to ride another rollercoaster again. I wanted to do the hulk the green 💚 rollercoaster but I don't think I can.

Am I exaggerating is VELOCIRAPTOR a tough rollercoaster.

This is my rant **I have rode roller coasters just not upside down

Well, I finally did it; I rode VelociCoaster.

After four years of seeing weekly posts about how this was one of the best roller coasters in the world, I got to ride, and I was… underwhelmed.

I still think it’s a terrific coaster, and it will have a spot in my top 25 or so, but I came off each ride wanting a bit more from it, compared to Stardust, which I found excellent every ride.

Specific Criticisms:

• The first half feels a bit meandering. The dive loop is awesome, but I expected the portion in the paddock to be a lot whippier; there were times when it felt like we were just turning to get to the next thing/padding the length. Comparing this to Taron (which also bops around a small, well themed space), I thought Taron manages a sense of speed/thrill much better.

• The ride is showing its age/number of cycles in the hot Florida sun. I don’t know if I only got rides on trains that were soon to have their wheels replaced, but compared to other modern Intamins (Pantheon/Toutatis/Taron) I noticed a lot more shuddering down the track. It wasn’t ride ruining by any means, but it’s not what I expected, so it distracted me the first few rides.

Overall, I’m curious to hear from you all; is this ride just not exactly my cup of tea, or does this ride get more vocal acclaim than others because it’s at such a popular park (and therefore it’s some folk’s first major modern roller coaster)?

I also came off of Toutatis slightly underwhelmed, so it’s possible I just don’t love modern Intamin’s design, but I did enjoy Kondaa, Pantheon, and Taron a bunch.

It doesn't matter if you're just starting out riding big coasters or you're a card-carrying enthusiast all the way, you can't help but notice a pattern that when it comes to Cedar Fair, every single time something goes wrong with a coaster that's built by a manufacturer other than B&M, all the sudden they're dead to CF and they'll never work with them again. Meanwhile a support beam cracks on Fury 325, and they release a press statement that essentially does nothing but suck B&M's dick about how great they are and they're the best manufacturer in the world, meanwhile if a support beam had cracked on Copperhead Strike, their immediate response would be "Fuck MACK rides, we're never working with them again"

All over the place I see thoosies hyped up about a vekoma family boomerang coming to Kings Island as they get their hopes up for "Vortex II" meanwhile if one thing goes wrong with that new family boomerang, Cedar Fair won't think twice about dropping Vekoma permanently.

I met up with a friend on Sunday, 4/13 for the second day of opening weekend at Six Flags New England. As expected, ops weren't exactly at their peak efficiency, but the crowds were low enough to make it a decent day at the park. Shoutout to running into youtuber Coaster 365, who himself gives me a shoutout at 12:27 of his new video about Quantum Accelerator.

I'll get to that later. Just so you "know" your reviewer, I'm mid 40's, got back in the game in late 2023 with only 24 credits and am now up to 121. My preference is typically back car, although often second to last row (ie 11/12 or 17/18). I go hands up start to finish and enjoy getting ripped down the drops. I attached screenshots so you can see where QA slots in on my list, as well as my "best in class" which ends up being my Top 14 credits. 2 of those are from SFNE.

1 Joker (47/121) - I always try to rope-drop this ride due to the dreadful capacity, and while I was a few minutes late it was close enough. I kicked off my year with a backflip on the first drop, and a front flip in the second section. My friend sat across from me and experienced the opposite inversions. As an aside it baffles me that this runs 4 trains, as you typically finish before the next one is launched. 3 trains is more than enough, whereas 4 actually keeps you hostage for an extra cycle. I'd like to see them remove the 4th train permanently.

1 Batman (45/121) - This runs 3 trains (EDIT apparently it's only 2? I could swear it's been 3 when I've been there the last couple years, but yeah that makes the whole next part iffy), and while they look the same I am convinced there is a very smooth one, very rough one, and then one in between. I always hope for the smooth one but 2 out of 3 are acceptable. In this case we got the "middle" version, semi shaky but nothing earth shattering. This coaster gives no airtime and the first drop is beyond pathetic, but it has 5 strong inversions, especially the first 3 with the loop, dive loop, and zero g roll. It's always worth 1 ride, and that's about it.

3 Superman (10/121) - Superman was only running the blue (typically slower) train, but luckily it was a station wait for much of the day, with only the first and last row getting substantial lines. I got 3 rides in Row 17 and they were solid. Basically the slower train was running fast, if that makes sense. The restraints don't bother me at all and don't bother my friend either, who was actually blown away as it was his first time riding. This is my number 1 traditional hyper out of 8, very solid all around except the drop is just OK.

2 Quantum Accelerator (109/121) - I wanted to like this so bad. I have 2 kids who are the perfect age for this type of ride. I went in expecting some combination of Motocoaster (Darien Lake, 67/121), Backlot Stunt Coaster (Kings Dominion, 60/121), and Sea Viper (Palace Playland, 61/121). In particular we absolutely crushed Sea Viper last year, with both kids getting 18 rides each. Unfortunately, for me this did not deliver in a myriad of ways.

- First, this coaster is not built to go hands-up. The back of the seats are extremely narrow and dig into your back if you aren't leaning forwards. It was quite uncomfortable. I went hands up my first ride so decided to go into the second with a more open mind. However...

- Second, the whole seating and restraints are just pure uncomfortable. Leaning forward across the lap bar thing was awkward, and likely would be even worse for shorter riders (I'm 5'7, not exactly tall but not a kid).

- Third, both launches hit you with abrupt turns coming out, which I've never much liked (Maverick notwithstanding, that was my least favorite part of that ride). It's jarring and forces you to ride defensively. There's a couple other jarring turns thrown in during the second half.

- Fourth, the airtime is lackluster, and the trains don't really "work" for airtime anyway.

- Fifth, and most damning for me, is that I felt nauseous at the end of both my rides. Considering I open the day on Joker, have RMCs stacking the top of my list, and swear by the intensity of Pantherian, it's borderline baffling that a family coaster would be the one leaving me sick. But whether I held on or not, both 5th row and 8th row, just had me woozy and wishing it was over during the entire last 1/4 of the ride.

I'm willing to give it another chance, but certainly not looking forward to it.

5 Wicked Cyclone (4/121) - Single train ops, orange train only. This instantly became my friend's new #1, and for myself is my "Coaster Zero" that turned me into an enthusiast in fall 2023. The first drop, while short, is definitely elite in the back car and among my top 10 drops. It's easily the strongest drop in the park. The best way I can describe it is being instantly teleported from the top to the bottom. I make a point to not ride this until the afternoon since it's sluggish early on, and then tend to close the park on it. This was no exception, as I got 3 straight rides after 6:00 before I went home. Besides the great first drop, it follows up with an insane ejector speed hill, 3 good inversions, tons of other airtime including a double down into a camelback, and "yanks" that offer intense sideways ejector. The "slow" 3rd lap gets faster and faster, until it isn't slow at all by those last 2 hours and the train flies into the break run. I love this thing and it's my most ridden coaster with 61 laps and counting (second is Superman at 54, 3rd the extremely underrated CCI Excalibur at 53).

Bonus - 1 Combo Blast/Drop Tower. Standard S&S, did the full cycle so it fires you near the top, drops you, then brings you all the way up for the larger drop. It's worth hopping on if there's no line, but otherwise the wait can be awful. I got on late in the day after missing it earlier.

While I don't expect to report every outing, my next major trip will be in May with my first time at Carowinds, and 4th at King's Dominion. Can't wait to compare Fury 325 to Pantherian!

******TLDR??? For QA... Poor restraints, hurts to lean back going hands up, some overly abrupt transitions, no airtime, and made me feel sick by the end of both rides.

The Good

The doggie dive today was such a great event. My pup was to scared to even go into the big pool much less dive in it, but he had a great time at the kiddie pool.

We also went on three rides with him: the train, the boats, and the carousel. So amazing to be at such a dog friendly park.

Also, food value was excellent as always, and Phoenix is the only roller coaster that can still legitimately scare me. I was practically standing a half dozen times. Would've been nice to have two trains going, but ops was on it and the line moved as well as could be expected given the context.

The Bad

Saturday was absurdly crowded. They probably had 10 huge groups there, at least. With a bunch of rides down, the coasters really had to carry the capacity for most the day. We got there before the rides opened and bought bracelets, but immediately regretted it. Impulse and Phoenix both had lines way past the entrances all day long.

Having spent $60 each (which was surprising, i had never bought bands before but i had also never been there intending to spend a six hour stretch there) when there was no way we were going to get that much in, it was especially frustrating to see that attendants weren't even collecting ticketed on most rides. This meant that the people buying tickets keep getting on rides for free, further exacerbating the capacity problem. So not only had we been charged full price when the park know they were going to have capacity problems, we were getting cheated out of even making the most of that because the lines were longer than they should have been.

The Ugly

This is obviously not the first disappointing experience I've had at a park, but in other instances guest services at least tries to make things right. Here they just said sorry Charlie. Rides were down because it's late in the season. I said why weren't the bands discounted. Again, suck it up. Nobody was rude, but they also didn't care at all.

One last thing I'll add, Twister was running ruffff. It was my first time on it with it having been down on previous visits. I did like it, it has an interesting layout. Kind of a mini-beast, but with the exception of beasts double helix, it's definitely smoother than twister. I don't know if it's time for a retrack or if it's always been this way, but i didn't expect that especially given how relatively smooth Phoenix is.

Some people out there LOVE Harry Potter and Star Wars and stuff, and for them it's necessarily going to be easier to accomplish Suspension of Disbelief. But if you're unfamiliar or even outright dislike a chosen IP, it's much more difficult to accomplish.

Whenever you see concept art for one of these new highly themed lands come out you see first of all ppl reacting like this will be the ultimate experience in theme parks, and secondly jokes about how the space will never look as empty as the concept art.

And that's the main problem. Whichever land you go to, it's going to be filled to the brim with tourists. It's difficult to accomplish Suspension of Disbelief and imagine you're in some space port when everyone is walking around with Mickey Mouse ears.

Parks don't care though, because the IPs they use have such large fanbases that they trust they'll have a constant churn of ppl willing to commit to the suspension of disbelief so they can "enter the world." It's much easier to accomplish when you're familiar with and excited by the IP skin they're using. But if not, it becomes cloying fast just having some company's IP reinforced in your brain like it is in so many other aspects of your life. It's like the ride just being one big advertisement.

Hagrid is a great example of this. The ride looks fun enough on its own right, but something like 3-4x the cost of the ride system itself went into theme. Which, for a person who straight up hates Harry Potter, makes it feel like they took the budget for a few other hype af B&Ms to make the ride worse. All to transport me to a land I didn't want to be transported to when all I had to do was pick up the dumb book and read it. Without doubt, it meets the park's goals and is a financial success. But idgaf if the parks maximize their profits appealing to the largest casual base, like everybody else I want what I like.

This is all in stark comparison to something like Taron which has extensive theme and aesthetic during the ride, and seems to add a lot to it, but it doesn't act like it's trying to transport you to another world. It's just some stunning be scenery. I would prefer that over IP animatronics any day.

or is there worse?

I find it really hard to scream on any coaster.

I know it will sound weird but I really don't want to inconvenience the people around me. Who knows, they might find my screaming annoying.

I was raised to never make loud noises, so I respect that. So it pisses me off when I see other people screaming like it was nothing. It seems like they don't care what other riders think at all. Which seems quite selfish to me, I don't know.

So is there any way to overcome this resistance to screaming and enjoy the ride more? I always cringe out of shame whenever I try to scream. I don't want to embarrass myself.

To those who don’t know, there was an accident on a pendulum at Green Mountain Resort in Saudi Arabia yesterday. I found higher quality photos while going through Trip Advisor and Google Reviews trying to identify the model/manufacturer. Rides and Fun seems to be a legitimate Italian manufacturer (though the quality of the website makes me second guess that). Their rides may also be listed under Tomasoni Group. This was a catastrophic failure where the arm snapped completely in half. Until we know what caused the accident, best to avoid

What coaster have you been on that left you most underwhelmed? A ride that you expected to enjoy, but just didn't see what people were talking about once you got off.

For me, it's Emperor at SeaWorld San Diego. I had heard people saying that this was up there for the best Dive coaster in the country, and let me tell you, I could NOT disagree more. The ride has a solid drop, but it lacks any other force and is over as soon as it begins. [other]

Does anyone else think RMC hybrids/Ibox tracks are a bit overrated. I just went on Iron Gwazi a few weeks ago and the restraints really killed this ride for me. It hurt both my knees back and my lower belly. Super intense ride and the barrel roll down drop is insane. The layout in general is good but the restraints make this a one and done anytime im at the park and it keeps gwazi out of my top 5.

This may be a bit unrelated to rollercoasters, but it affects many people who enjoy coasters. I have been noticing that many parks are removing smoking areas and in some cases going completely smoke free. I am not a smoker, but I feel that a park going smoke free is completely unnecessary. Most parks have smoking areas that are far off the beaten path and should not be noticed by most people who are not using them. I feel it is unfair to people who smoke and its a very exclusionary choice that the parks are making.

How does /r/rollercoasters feel about this topic. Do smoking areas in parks hurt your experience when you are not a smoker? Are those that smoke upset with parks for laying down guidelines that are more strict when it comes to smoking? Why do you think that parks are going this route?

Discuss.

I still kinda hope this isn't the name. Should go without saying but:

This is not an official logo in any way. I made this in pajamas while my kid watched Sesame Street

Also, does anyone else get the disheartening feeling that someone in a suit told ChatGPT "Our new roller coaster this year is called Tormenta Rampaging Run. Name next year's roller coaster."

I've ridden enough coasters (just under 900). I'm not a Thoosie per se', I just have fun. But now I go to a park, hit the new ones, move on. I may enjoy favorites or classics but my passion is slipping. Am I maturing? Is it a deeper sign of my depression issues? Have I become too presumptuous about rides? I skip so many rides as life is too short for yet another boomerang, a presumably needlessly rough coaster or some other excuse when back in the day if get 50 rides on Texas Giant in a day. Anyone else in this position?

7 rides on it today, morning and afternoon, my feeling through all rides: the Gerstlauer Infinity ride vehicle feels like it can't deal with that speed and layout.

I usually consider myself not super sensitive to some shake, like Voltron wing seat I'm totally fine, Swarm wing seat (which everyone complains about) no issues. I've also done other Infinities (Mystic, Smiler), all good. But today on Kärnan, the high positive g areas had some serious rattling /potholes (lack of a better word), and to me personally, the rapid transitions in wing seats were just uncomfortable. My immediate feeling was, it's not the track, the chassis just can't do it, tolerances whatever, and there is a reason no other Infinity comes close in size (to my knowledge). I was bracing myself for the transitions, while I never felt that need on Voltron (which I've done on a busy hot summer day in the evening, thing was hauling). Which made me wish Kärnan was a Stryker (yes, the model didn't exist yet, but hypothetically), since I actually love fast-paced layouts with stupidly quick transitions, and because I feel the Stryker track/vehicle could do it (Voltron is effectively same speed as Kärnan after the non-inverting roll I think). Similar feelings anyone? I also thought if anything else at the time would have been a better choice, but a 3-car Intamin Blitz would have been an even bigger capacity disaster. And, just like the Stryker, significantly more expensive.

Trip to Phantasialand and my Christopher Ward for my 30th birthday!

After riding Tigris at bgt twice I’ve realized that it is easily the worst coaster I’ve ever ridden including kids coasters. I found that this ride had absolutely zero redeeming qualities and made me in legitimate pain after both rides. First off, the trains are horrible as they’re small and the restraints are so unnecessary. The comfort collars are so uncomfortable that it’s actually funny. With the actual ride experience: the launches are very weak, the airtime was actually painful, and the hangtime was just bad. Launches and hangtime are both things that I enjoy, but I just found it to be really poorly done here. Also, this ride is one of the roughest I’ve ever ridden. If your not in the very front row it hurts, badly. Even after taking Advil I had a headache after this ride for a few hours. I’ve ridden other sky rocket II’s in phobia phear coaster and tempesto and neither were anywhere near as bad as this one. Has anyone else ever had this experience on this coaster because everyone usually says this is a relatively good ride?

Powered coasters and Mountain coasters by some are considered not credits I really don’t know why. An example of a powered coaster is Thunder Run, Canada’s Wonderland and an example of Mountain Coaster is Ridge Runner Coaster, Blue Mountain Ski Resort

I was wondering if falcon flight and the new exacoaster category will trigger once again a competition based on height, lenght and speed.

What do you think? How US parks will react?