Coaster reviews

Inversions Intensity

An excellent post Senator Markey US G-limiting B&M, one that actually has a punch to it on day one. This one got an awful lot of re-riding. I can imagine after 10 years of breaking in it will have picked up a tad more speed too. Underrated coaster; albeit it is sat in an uninspiring location; basically a car park coaster dressed up with a few borders.

Theming Nice surprise! Ejectors

The Mummy remains one of my favourites at Universal Orlando. Rapid and uses physical effects to great effect; as opposed to the disaster that is Gringotts just round the corner... The mummy is also unique in that it's possibly the only coaster that our Mother-in-law has been on! (What is it? It's a dark ride!... Well, it's sort of true!) The staff have operations down to an absolute tee, managing to cleverly disguise operational signals in character. I recall one ride where the restraint was locked but perhaps not quite so much as it should have been, resulting in absolutely enormous ejector ...

Theming Intensity Smoothness

Wodan was a real surprise for me. I'm not exactly what you call a conventional enthusiast with regards wooden coasters, but GCI are consistently an exception. We had the luxury of staying at Europa Park a couple of days, and had plenty of time to take in it's nuances. The hard-to-remember layout, much airtime and laterals handled well all contribute to it being a blast. Night riding with Fenrir roaring into the sky highly recommended (and impressive).

Comfort Hangtime Too short

An excellent ride, and of different style to everything else at SFMM, not an easy achievement given the variety they have. I can think of nothing bad about Full Throttle really; but it's not a coaster you'd travel a long way to visit by itself.

Theming Harness Disappointing!

Another instance of Universal pushing style over substance too far, I don't really class this as a rollercoaster. It isn't an unpleasant ride, but utterly forgettable. Considering the "similar", but superb Mummy is just round the corner from it I was expecting more from this. Our first ride on this was in the front row, which I found involved much neck-craning to watch the film on the run into the first drop. I am sure that it is only a matter of time that someone will suffer problems from the drop-and-turn into the dark while trying to watch the effects. A later repeat ride in the back row w ...

Comfort Dead spots Layout

Icon is a bit of a first for Blackpool. Almost all of their coasters to date had their origins in pre-CAD design; whereas Icon is very obviously a finely tuned laser-cut precision machine. Unfortunately, it is also well known that the park's owner is not much of a big coaster fan (oh, the irony!) which might have biased some of the decisions on layout. The launches on Icon are functional but insipid. The trains are like other Mack Megas excellent hardware; and the inversions effective, but not earth shattering. The ride is better once it's warmed up it has to be said. A punchier launch up to a ...

Inversions Launch Harness

The ironically named Storm Runner, like most rides at Hershey, will not run in the rain. I was lucky enough to get a break in the bad weather to get a couple of goes on this machine in the limited time we had to visit. The difference over the other accelerator coasters of course is that this one actually does something with the power rather than fritter it away on the brakes, a massive plus. I hate those Intamin overheads, though I don't remember them being as much of a nuisance as they are on say, Furius Baco or Kingda Ka.

Launch Ejectors Too short Harness

Not a lot to say about Stelf. Power, power and more power = fun, but not world class. The trains are poor, and don't do a lot with the energy. If you can catch it close to park close you can often get a series of repeat rides in quick succession, which resolves the too-short problem! Oh yes, and it's a lot better than Kingda Ka :-P

Location Fun Smoothness

Best coaster in Seaworld, well paced and makes good use of the flying coaster tech. The pretzel loop is forceful and memorable, but this ride more than just a G-machine. I really like how Seaworld don't big their rides up as terror machines, rather, instead, dress it up as "come fly with us" - much more fun and inviting to a wider audience. My only dislike comes from the mid course brakes, which are largely unnecessary for anything other than 2-train-on-track simultaneous operation, which I have never seen occur!

Location Masterpiece Layout

Most flying coasters built to date have been plonked out on flat, open land. Not so, with Tatsu, which makes excellent use of the hills on "Samurai Summit". Much of the ride's "outside facing" time is spent at high altitude, cleverly interspersed with dives at speed into the woods. I loved Air when it opened (one of the few that did!), and it has of course been completely superceded now, but Tatsu is something else entirely. 2nd best coaster at Magic Mountain IMO.