This ride surprised me in a good way. I didn't go in expecting much although I had read the reviews that suggested it was worth riding. But I rode thi...
This ride surprised me in a good way. I didn't go in expecting much although I had read the reviews that suggested it was worth riding. But I rode this something like 7-8x over a three day stretch in August 2023 and my daughter and I kept coming back for more. This ride feels scary, in a good way. The ride has great intensity for a wooden coaster, you get solid airtime in multiple places, there are strong G's throughout the ride and it just feels super powerful throughout a pretty long layout. Even when looking at the layout from vantage points throughout the park, you don't get any sense for how long and fun this ride will be. Definitely the second best ride at Dollywood.
VelociCoaster is at my home park, Universal's Islands of Adventure but that isn't why it's my #1 coaster of all time. I just think this ride is near p...
VelociCoaster is at my home park, Universal's Islands of Adventure but that isn't why it's my #1 coaster of all time. I just think this ride is near perfection. It's butter smooth, the two launches are great, especially the second one over the top hat, you get very strong G's on the banks over the bridges at the end of the ride and the mosaisaurus roll at the end of the ride might be the best single element on any coaster ever. Even the hard bank turn heading into the break run is great. And the great theming in the queue line makes the 45-90 minute wait somewhat bearable. I love this ride.
Lightning Rod is a great ride, no doubt. It's an RMC, so it almost automatically gets a 5 in my book. The setting for this ride is fantastic. The laun...
Lightning Rod is a great ride, no doubt. It's an RMC, so it almost automatically gets a 5 in my book. The setting for this ride is fantastic. The launch up the mountain, the backdrop and the theming are all fantastic. But I do feel this ride is a bit overrated. There are no inversions and I'm a big RMC inversion fan. The quad down is great and is better than the quad down on ArieForce One because it's more creative in its layout and isn't painful. But the ride is fairly short. I timed this ride at 70 seconds and with that ride time, I actually prefer the similarly long Twisted Cyclone because I like the elements on that ride a bit more. If this ride was about 25-30 seconds longer it would rate higher for me. Of the four RMC's I have ridden (Gwazi, ArieForce One, Twisted Cyclone), this is actually my least favorite, but because I'm a huge RMC fan, this is still in my top-10 coasters of all-time.
I also got very lucky in that I went to Dollywood on a day when it was raining, so this was a walkup all day long and the cooler temperatures kept the launch from failing so I was able to ride this thing 10x in a single day and 14x over a three day stretch.
Here is my advice. If you want to ride this multiple times, you need to keep the seat harness at least 1-2” above your thighs. The attendants will not...
Here is my advice. If you want to ride this multiple times, you need to keep the seat harness at least 1-2” above your thighs. The attendants will not push it down on you. The first two times I rode this I had the harness touching my thighs and to say the quad down at end was painful would be an understatement. I had visible bruises the next day. But my last 6 runs of this were much more enjoyable. I’m 51, so my body couldn’t take more than 8 runs of this beast. It also didn’t help that it was 100 degrees on the day we went.
But this is easily the most intense coaster I’ve ever been on. I haven’t been on as many as most of you, but I have been on all of them at Cedar Point, Velocicoaster, Lightning Rod, Twisted Cyclone and Iron Gwazi. This blows them all away for intensity. The ride is incredibly fast and intense, especially the arcade roll and the hard G’s around the lake bank. The zero G stall lasts forever, at least two seconds, but the car is hauling so fast that you almost can’t appreciate it. Everything about this ride is the best I’ve experienced until you finish the arcade roll.
The quad down at the end hurts the ride for me a bit. If you love ejector air, you’ll love it. But I prefer the quad down on Lightning Rod to this because if the twists they throw into that ride. This one is a less creative finish and like I said, if you have the lap bar down too tight, it’s painful. You will also lurch out of your chair if you are in the back car on the brake run it’s so short. Prepare for that.
But the length of the ride, the look of the ride, the speed and intensity? This is as good as it gets from what I’ve ridden.
