Reseñas de montañas rusas

Situación Tiempo muerto

Covered in trims, probably to stave off the worst of the roughness associated with 70's and 80's wooden coasters. As a result, the ride doesn't have any particularly forceful parts. The Beast is nonetheless one of the better surviving examples of the era; and the forest setting and duration are both excellent.

Forceless, anemic, rough, yet visually impressive. Rather like Gouderix? If it had been smooth, the dull layout would have been exposed even more. The loop was the highlight of the ride, mostly because it offered some sort of excitement. Of course, that had to be removed when the trains were changed. This is the only ride I've ever returned to the station chanting BURN IT! BURN IT! You didn't miss anything missing out on this one.

Controversially, not a big fan of this one. Great setting, and well looked after, but not a patch on Megafobia. Perhaps suffered from being overhyped somewhat.

Massively wide trains don't turn very effectively. Like manouvering a bus, not a needle, so is utterly forceless. Nothing technically wrong with it, but not an especially exciting ride past the roll into 1st drop. The "wasteland" theme has been done to death and much better, not least at Alton Towers just up the road.

Very potent launch and well thought out use of the wing coaster format; getting you very close to the ground at high speed and a couple of fun inversions. HOWEVER, ruined, by 1) dreadful capacity 2) dreadful operations and 3) by being right next to the main gate therefore the queue line is inevitably over-long all hours of the day.

Situación ¡Decepción! Incomodidad ¡Romper en pedazos!

I was so disappointed with Boulder Crash in 2006. Fabulous location; but a terribly violent ride. Intensity does not require sitting on a jack hammer for 90 seconds. It's coming to something when I enjoyed the parks Boomerang (admittedly one of the better examples of it's type) rather more! Boulder crash is absolutely screaming for an RMC rescue package, if there ever was one. It's not like the layout even needs much of a change, just needs smoothing out with lighter trains and suspension to soak up the damage.

Primera caída ¡Decepción!

Superb engineering once again from B&M, but not a great ride. It's more of a looker from the ground; it is mostly contrived to look impressive from the ground (which it does!). Anything other than the front row misses out greatly. Sheikra is surrounded by other superlative rides, which biases my low score for this one, but then that's the challenge of trying to out-do yourself!

Capacidad

Great little ride but desperately short of capacity. Shuttle coasters by definition are single train, and in a park as busy as this, this is a daft idea. Would really benefit from being a pair of identical rides.

Tematización ¡Buena sorpresa! 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 airtime. Much fun!

Superb location, cleverly engineered. Not intended to be a heavily forceful ride; though obviously still has the same basic height restrictions as other B&M's, which I find somewhat contradictory. Good job it does not rely on brute force to do it's job!

Never get bored of Bobsled coasters. With the retirement of the Wild Mouse, this is now my favourite ride left in BPB.

Inversiones Arnés Suavidad

This was the first Mack Mega I had the privilege to board, and there's a reason why I immediately declared that I had a new favourite manufacturer. Unlike the decade of well engineered but mostly forgettable B&M's of the early 2000's (we are spoiled aren't we?!) Mack pulled the cat out of the bag and delivered inversions in a new format using hugely exposed yet comfortable trains. They got the pacing bang on, saving the biggest trick of the ride right to the end. Highly recommended. I can see why BPB went with Icon, it's a shame it's not half the ride Blue Fire is.

Vibración

Judders and rattley. The near identical ride in Florida is considerably smoother, and better for it. Desperately needs an overhaul and possibly the same trains that DLP's Space Mountain picked up.

Been on quite a few dive coasters, and, at least as far as it's gimmick is concerned, Oblivion's drop remains the best example. It's the only one dive machine that hits the tunnel in the vertical. Older style OTSR leave space for airtime (double dose if you can get the modified seating with two seatbelts and more room...) Sure, it does NOTHING else, but as a glorified drop tower it's the best one. As a coaster, sure, the other examples have extra features, but can anyone particularly say Sheikra's inversions are memorable? Nope.

Had the luxury of having multiple stay-on rides, at night, at Halloween! Given the space constraints in Tivoli Gardens that it exists at all is an achievement. Not the best B&M you'll ever find but has oodles of atmosphere in a great park. Night riding repeatedly cannot be recommended enough!

Inversiones Intensidad Arnés

Ace coaster, and one that almost cannot be believed to be portable, even after all these years. Clunky two part restraints are a dislike especially the shoulders, though I can see why they are necessary. The ride would have clearance issues in certain places if your arms were free. Pacing isn't the best; after the 5 inversions the ride still has quite a bit of run time, but can't do an awful lot with it. Still an incredible achievement and long may it continue!

Capacidad Incomodidad ¡Romper en pedazos!

The Smiler is Marmite. Love it or hate it, it seems. The latest Gerstlauers have learned that rate-of-change-of-acceleration is important. Smiler was on that learning curve, but not right. Suspect build quality from day one, even pre-accident it had a lot of problems. The spin-and-spew quality to the ride is, I will grant it, somewhat novel, but those trains, oh those trains are hateful bolt-upright things and highly uncomfortable. Also, I intensely dislike the queue line. Yay! Let's deliberately pack you all in like cattle in a cage. Not a pleasant experience. Given a shorter queue I'd maybe have enjoyed it somewhat more; however the only thing that will entice me into a return is a refit with Hangtime-style clamshells. Some legends say the Black Hole was cursed; and I am inclined to believe the Smiler is proof!

Horror theme is hardly enticing; and a crap ride to boot. Like other early Gerstlauers, instant migraine. Merlin can afford far better and being short changed with crappy rides in one of the few parks that could actually finance something good in the UK is doubly annoying.

Instant migraine. Oakwood were looking for something impressive within their budget, which I guess the ride ticks that box, but absolutely no desire to go back on this. Gerstlauers I like are very rare indeed, and this is definitely not one of them.

Good layout in a half interesting setting if it's not overran with rubbish and graffitti. Frequent power cuts in the park mean frequent downtime, and the ride has poor capacity at the best of times. Routinely fitted with 50-pence piece shaped wheels, and the restraints aren't far short of requiring a yoga instructor to get in an out. Can't help but think it was intended to have TTD-style lap bars; but insurers got nervous after some unfortunate events elsewhere.

Could not fathom the high ratings on this one. Want to know how to make a hypercoaster slow, airtime free and forceless? Come try Steel Force.

It's hard to image a 250ft coaster being dull, but somehow SFMM managed it with this one! We've been spoiled by so many other, better hypercoasters. The MCB grinds the ride to almost a complete halt, taking a lot of the G out of the "fabled" helix. The drops aren't especially steep, airtime is limited due to use of straight-track rather than parabolas (think Blackpool's Big One), and the boxy-trains by todays standards don't expose you anywhere near the same as Intamin or B&M efforts.

1/2 star is too high! An interesting "feature" was that this ride could be despatched without the restraints being locked - and remember quite clearly having to hold them down for a mate sat next to me!

My favourite wooden coaster at BPB still standing, it seemed to notably decline after Richard Rodriguez' bonkers record setting. In dire need of much TLC.

The Crash National. Sorry. 20 years ago this was a 4-star attraction. Maybe we're spoiled by 20-years worth of accumulated experience elsewhere but there are coasters of comparable vintage in a far better state than this (Rutschebanen at Tivoli Gardens for instance, or most of Kennywood).

An obscene ride when it first opened - brilliant setting, and the out-and-back elements are a lot of fun. Somewhat dislike the twister elements. Chaos might float some peoples boats but coming back battered and bruised just because the trains don't track properly isn't so much fun.

Bizarrely, of the three woodies at Holiday World I think I preferred Legend - certainly got the most re-riding out of it.

Situación Capacidad Incomodidad

A former world number 1, on last visit it sadly resembled sitting on a jackhammer, and marred by being operated hopelessly slowly. It's smaller, older brother at Oakwood has aged much more gracefully.

Inversiones Situación Vibración

I was one of the lucky ones to ride Kumba in it's opening year, completely oblivious to it's significance at the time. Still a great ride this far down the line and Busch work very hard to look after it - allegedly it's one of the more complex B&M's to maintain. It doesn't share the same structural features as virtually all other B&M's, take a close look at the joints between track and structure. It can be a bit rattley at times but it's also not scared to apply forces, something newer rides often back away from.

Launch Arnés

OK launch, and forget the rest - does essentially nothing with all that speed. I doubt Rita will outlive any of the other Intamin Accelerators, the site it's on is one of the few locations in the towers where development is permissible above the treeline.