Carter Eckhart - Reviews

This coaster is a hidden gem. It’s tucked way in the back of the park in the woods, so night rides are pitch black and just overall insane. The pacing, which is definitely the best thing about this co...

This coaster is a hidden gem. It’s tucked way in the back of the park in the woods, so night rides are pitch black and just overall insane. The pacing, which is definitely the best thing about this coaster for me, is surprisingly extremely good, especially at night when it’s warmed up and has a full train. The maximum position for the restraints on this is much higher than on other coasters with PTC trains and it’s easier to get room so if you hold up your restraint you can come out of your seat a lot, especially on the drops off the turnarounds which can give ejector depending on how fast the ride is running. This ride is also the bounciest coaster I’ve ridden but it’s somehow still smooth, which adds some tiny airtime pops on some of the hills which is kinda fun. The turns also have a little bit of laterals which is cool and the ride is pretty long. I did put dead spots because although the ride never slows down and is fun the whole time, a lot of the hills don’t really have airtime. Overall this ride is just pure fun and my last ride of the night ride on it when it was hauling like crazy was a very memorable experience.

American thunder definitely isn’t as aggressive and out of control as other GCI’s such as mystic timbers or thunderhead but it’s still able to hold its own. It probably has the best airtime on a GCI I...

American thunder definitely isn’t as aggressive and out of control as other GCI’s such as mystic timbers or thunderhead but it’s still able to hold its own. It probably has the best airtime on a GCI I’ve experienced. The restraints are easier to get and keep room with than other GCI’s for some reason which helps me feel that airtime easier. The first drop has no laterals but sustained floater which is weird. The layout contains many sustained airtime moments and quick pops, with the drop off the 2nd turnaround really standing out. The final 2 turnarounds also have some solid laterals for a change. The layout still has that GCI flair that I appreciate and the pacing is great as expected with a GCI, not world class pacing or anything but it feels pretty fast and holds that speed well. The ride is also very smooth and has a good duration. Overall a middle of the road GCI and a great coaster for this park.

The restraints and grinding roughness take away from the ride a bit but don’t entirely ruin it. Most of the ride does nothing but that speed hill and ending triangle hills, especially in the magic sea...

The restraints and grinding roughness take away from the ride a bit but don’t entirely ruin it. Most of the ride does nothing but that speed hill and ending triangle hills, especially in the magic seat are just too insane.

The weakest Batman clone I’ve ridden but still an awesome ride. The drop was actually pretty good for an invert, the pullouts of the loop as well as the first helix was intense, although not quite as ...

The weakest Batman clone I’ve ridden but still an awesome ride. The drop was actually pretty good for an invert, the pullouts of the loop as well as the first helix was intense, although not quite as intense as some other Batman clones and the zero g roll and corkscrews are pretty snappy as always. The pacing was also great but definitely not as good as the great adventure one which is one reason I prefer that one to this. This Batman clone in particular also has a pretty noticeable rattle but it didn’t really detract from the ride. Overall a middle of the road invert for me and I don’t mind that this layout is cloned because these coasters are great rides that I look forward to at every park I visit that has one.

I can see why many people don’t like this ride but I was able to ride boss under great condition and fully appreciate what it has to offer. I was able to get 6 clicks of room with the lap bar and keep...

I can see why many people don’t like this ride but I was able to ride boss under great condition and fully appreciate what it has to offer. I was able to get 6 clicks of room with the lap bar and keep it in that position for the entire ride, which made me fly pretty high out of the seat on every airtime moment. Speaking of airtime, this ride actually has many good moments such as some of the big drops in the first half, the speed hills at the beginning and the final hill. There is also several good moments of laterals, nothing on the level of a ride such as legend but they are still solid. There is a few dead spots but there is also some very fast sections to make up for it. The coaster also has a good duration and great setting through the woods. Boss also isn’t even that rough, it definitely has that wood coaster rumble to it and a few questionable jolts and potholes but none of them really hurt. I did however put reliability as a con because for some reason it went down for the rest of my first day at the park due to the park needing to turn on the lift hill lights, yeah that was really weird and kinda stupid but it did limit me to only one night ride on boss. Overall I just really like CCI layouts and boss is no exception, and this is just a ride I had a lot of fun on. Yeah it’s kinda rough around the edges and not objectively the best coaster out there but I just had a great time riding boss.

Interesting ride for sure. On one hand the beginning of the ride is very fast and has some great sustained moments of strong floater airtime that I really enjoy, and that first drop is amazing in the ...

Interesting ride for sure. On one hand the beginning of the ride is very fast and has some great sustained moments of strong floater airtime that I really enjoy, and that first drop is amazing in the back. Plus the location is just stunning. However on the other hand the end of the ride is very sluggish and fails to do much, plus there is that large hill in the beginning where the ride slows down a lot. Either way I really enjoy the good moments of the ride and it is definitely a really solid ride.

Mr freeze is definitely not the longest ride out there but what it has is amazing. The backwards launch out of the station pulls you forward and it’s insane. All of the valleys and overbank gave short...

Mr freeze is definitely not the longest ride out there but what it has is amazing. The backwards launch out of the station pulls you forward and it’s insane. All of the valleys and overbank gave short bursts of crushing positives. The spike is very fun as you get pushed towards the ground when you get launched upwards and get great floater the whole way down. Then the inverted top hat gives weird airtime and lateral forces going in and out of it and good hangtime going through it forwards. Overall mr freeze is my favorite coaster at SFSTL and an insane ride.

I had more fun on this than the other SBF visa spinners I’ve ridden for some reason. It has some extra theming and it’s longer than the other SBF spinners I’ve ridden but it’s still a relatively lame ...

I had more fun on this than the other SBF visa spinners I’ve ridden for some reason. It has some extra theming and it’s longer than the other SBF spinners I’ve ridden but it’s still a relatively lame kiddie coaster.

This was definitely a disappointment for me. I had always heard how these family gravity groups had such good airtime but this ride definitely didn’t for me. There was still a good amount of airtime m...

This was definitely a disappointment for me. I had always heard how these family gravity groups had such good airtime but this ride definitely didn’t for me. There was still a good amount of airtime moments but they were all weak floater. This ride also had a bit of a rattle which made no sense. It’s a fun family coaster but nothing more than that.

Definitely one of the weaker inverts for sure. Runs pretty slow and the first half of the ride do nothing. However the ride does redeem itself a bit with an awesome zero g roll and corkscrew towards t...

Definitely one of the weaker inverts for sure. Runs pretty slow and the first half of the ride do nothing. However the ride does redeem itself a bit with an awesome zero g roll and corkscrew towards the end.

What an amazing ride. I thought it looked overrated and I wasn't going to like it that much before riding but I was totally wrong. The buzz bars make a huge difference, lots of hill give great floater...

What an amazing ride. I thought it looked overrated and I wasn't going to like it that much before riding but I was totally wrong. The buzz bars make a huge difference, lots of hill give great floater airtime but some of them have kinks in them that send you absolutely flying and you get standing ejector. The ride also has surprisingly good pacing and laterals too which I wasn't expecting. Now the ride can kind of hurt your knees but if you grab the buzz bar and push away on the airtime it won't hurt. Overall this ride may not have the most diversity but its really as good as a classic woodie can get. the airtime is amazing and the buzz bars make it feel like you are going to die its just insane.

Pretty solid woodie and really the only reason to go to this park. It definitely has that signature GCI layout with those unique GCI elements but it runs like a CCI between the excellent laterals and ...

Pretty solid woodie and really the only reason to go to this park. It definitely has that signature GCI layout with those unique GCI elements but it runs like a CCI between the excellent laterals and pretty weak to nonexistent airtime. I also enjoyed the first drop between the excellent laterals going into it and great sustained floater going down it. In general, the best elements on the ride are towards the beginning but the coaster keeps its pace really well the entire ride despite a lot of the elements at the end of the ride being relatively void of force. The coaster does have that wooden coaster rumble to it but it’s not necessarily rough apart from one pothole at the end of the first large turn. However there is 2 problems I have with this ride but they aren’t really related to the actual coaster itself. The first one is you are not allowed to stay in your seat and reride this coaster even if there is no one waiting for your row or even if the queue is completely empty. You must walk back around to the entrance and through the queue which is a pain and severely limits the amount of times you can lap this coaster. The second issue I have is that the park is completely dead, or at least it was the day I went. This might seem like a good thing but this means it’s pretty hard to ride with a full train, so most of your rides the train will be nearly empty which causes the coaster to run significantly slower. Overall, this coaster is nowhere near being one of the best woodies in the country, but it’s a long, relentless and just plain fun ride that makes the visit to Beech Bend worth it.

Yes smoothness is actually a pro, this ride is butter smooth and doesn’t hurt one bit which is especially surprising because it is built by Dinn. Thunder Run also has some amazing sustained floater ai...

Yes smoothness is actually a pro, this ride is butter smooth and doesn’t hurt one bit which is especially surprising because it is built by Dinn. Thunder Run also has some amazing sustained floater airtime on those first 3 hills and I like how fast the turns feel. Unfortunately a lot of the ride does nothing but the moments it does have combined with the smoothness makes Thunder Run a pretty underrated coaster.

This ride feels like a sample of what GCI has to offer. Its a little short and its a family coaster so the forces aren’t as strong as most of the larger GCI’s, but InvadR still has the blueprint and e...

This ride feels like a sample of what GCI has to offer. Its a little short and its a family coaster so the forces aren’t as strong as most of the larger GCI’s, but InvadR still has the blueprint and elements that are unique to GCI. The ride still has some fun airtime pops and turns too, plus the pacing is quite good and gets better throughout the ride. The viking theming is also cool and kinda funny at some points. Overall it’s nothing crazy but it’s definitely an above average family coaster and does what it sets out to do.

This ride feels slower than a monorail, yet the transitions are so jerky and badly profiled that they still manage to deliver an absurd level of pain. Despite how the front of the ride looks, the ins...

This ride feels slower than a monorail, yet the transitions are so jerky and badly profiled that they still manage to deliver an absurd level of pain. Despite how the front of the ride looks, the inside of the building is just a big metal box completely void of any theming. Overall the pure torture in both boredom and pain that this coaster inflicts combine to make it one of the worst I’ve ridden.

It used to be a coin toss whether you would get a decent ride or a bad and painful ride on this. However in recent years, every ride on this is worse than either of those 2 previous scenarios. This co...

It used to be a coin toss whether you would get a decent ride or a bad and painful ride on this. However in recent years, every ride on this is worse than either of those 2 previous scenarios. This coaster is ridiculously rough and the transitions are just downright awful. You have to ride defensively throughout the entire ride and that still won’t stop all of the pain. And to top it all off you end the ride with the most painful part of the ride, this horrendous transition going into the brake run that no other SLC has. On top of the ride feeling like it’s going to fall apart, it also looks like it’s going to fall apart too. Not only is the paint fading, but it’s completely peeling at many points as well. This coaster does pull some force but not much and I personally think that these SLC’s just have pretty boring layouts. Overall this coaster just plain sucks, unless you enjoy having your head be smashed to pieces.

An extremely boring and slow coaster, and every time you go more than 5 mph the ride feels like it’s going to fall apart and murders you with roughness. Plus the transitions feel like they were design...

An extremely boring and slow coaster, and every time you go more than 5 mph the ride feels like it’s going to fall apart and murders you with roughness. Plus the transitions feel like they were designed on paper by a 5 year old. Honestly the best part about this ride was the random pool in the middle of the coaster. Overall the ride was pointless, painful and one of the worst coasters I’ve ridden.

You start with the backwards lift which is actually pretty fun as you are hanging there facing straight at the ground. Then you drop and traverse the layout forwards. This section is alright, nowhere ...

You start with the backwards lift which is actually pretty fun as you are hanging there facing straight at the ground. Then you drop and traverse the layout forwards. This section is alright, nowhere near as intense as a normal boomerang and a bit of a rattle plus some discomfort with how bulky the restraint is and the little bit of head banging you get during the cobra roll. So far not good but nothing too bad. But then you hit the forwards lift hill and the ride turns to garbage. Your legs flop down due to being at the vertical angle and the back of your knees dig into the the seat and stay there for the rest of the ride, causing searing pain and visible marks. This is truly one of the worst and most painful coasters I’ve ridden.

The new trains didn’t make this better at all, in fact they made it worse. The ride is still insanely rough, and instead of head banging you now get thigh crushing and horrible back pain from the awfu...

The new trains didn’t make this better at all, in fact they made it worse. The ride is still insanely rough, and instead of head banging you now get thigh crushing and horrible back pain from the awful seat mold which in my opinion is definitely worse. For sure one of the worst coasters I’ve ridden.

This one definitely runs faster than the KD one which actually makes it worse. The ride is very rough and the jerky transitions are extremely painful, it gave me a headache which never happens on coas...

This one definitely runs faster than the KD one which actually makes it worse. The ride is very rough and the jerky transitions are extremely painful, it gave me a headache which never happens on coasters for me. Plus since the coaster is in complete darkness you can barely see the upcoming horrible transitions and you have no time to brace for them. Even though this one runs faster than the one at KD, it still feels like it’s going to valley at many points and the ride is just pretty forceless overall. Even the launch on this one didn’t do anything for me. Overall this ride does nothing and hurts like crazy, a perfect recipe for one of the worst coasters I’ve ridden.

It’s already my least favorite wild mouse because it pulls zero force, even the hairpin turns give no laterals. However they had to make the ride way worse than it already was by adding that stupid ho...

It’s already my least favorite wild mouse because it pulls zero force, even the hairpin turns give no laterals. However they had to make the ride way worse than it already was by adding that stupid horn. That thing might be the most annoying sound I have ever heard in my life. I put discomfort as a con not because the ride itself hurts, in fact the one good thing about the coaster is that it’s butter smooth and it doesn’t have any bad transitions, but because the horn is actually painful. My ears wanted to explode every time that darn thing went off. It’s the only coaster I’ve ridden where the theming made the ride worse.