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Past & Present favourite coasters

CookieCoasters

Giga Poster
Don't worry, this isn't one of those topics that ask 'what's your favourite coaster?' when most of the time you can just look at the persons profile to find that out. I am more interested to find out what was the first coaster you rode, where you thought 'that was my favourite coaster' and how that feeling progressed through the years and how many favourite coasters you have had and for how long. It would also be interesting to find out if anybody has only ever had one favourite coaster. If you still don't understand i'll give you an example.

The first coaster i rode where i thought that it was my favourite coaster was Tatsu at SFMM in Summer 2009 (didn't ride X2 that visit). Tatsu managed to keep the crown for another two years even when it was challenged by coasters like Sheikra, Bizarro and Balder. In Summer 2011 i rode Expedition GeForce for the first time, which was when,Tatsu was finally overruled.

However when i visited SFMM in April 2012 i rode X2 for the first time and Tatsu again, which was when i found it difficult to decide between all three of them. Originally i chose X2 as my favourite, but having had one or two slightly unpleasant ride on it i realised that my favourite coaster needs to be one that gives consistently good rides. In the end i put EGF in the prime spot.

A few months later in early summer i rode EGF and my previous choice was confirmed. However, later in that Summer i rode Goliath at Walibi Holland which really impressed me and after 15 rides, i decided it was marginally better than EGF.

To this day Goliath still holds this spot even when being challenged with Piraten earlier this summer.

You don't to go into as much depth as i did if you don't want to, i was just curious about the journey of everyones favourite coasters.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Pre-2006 I have a hard time figuring out my favourite. It was around that time that I really got into coasters, so I'll just go from there really. My first 'favourite' coaster was Nemesis (considering I'd only been to Legoland, Disneyland Paris, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park I think it's a fair assumption that Nemesis was the best of that lot).

2006 (June-ish) - 2010 (June-ish): my favourite coaster spot was held by Montu (seems like I had a think for inverts). I still think Montu is a fantastic coaster, but for those four years I thought it was the best thing I'd ridden.

2010 (June-ish) - 2010 (July-ish): Then I did my first BIG coaster trip (the USA CF Live that year called Shuckin Escapade) and El Toro entered the scene. Needless to say it jumped to my #1.

2010 (July-ish) - present: At the end of the CF Live we did an add-on up to Lake Compounce and I got to ride Boulder Dash. I thought it was amazing during the day, but it completely blew my mind at night. That day of riding still justifies it to me as my #1, but I've heard it's gotten a bit worse over the years so maybe it won't be up that high if/when I get back to riding it again.

Looking forward, I'm not seeing anything in my short term coaster plans that is going to challenge Boulder Dash, but who knows!
 

Darren B

Giga Poster
Pepsi Max Big One sat as my number one for years until I rode Dragon Khan in 2010, I found Dragon Khan to be completely different to anything I'd ridden before and really showed what a looping coaster should do, a really smooth fun coaster with smooth transitions and a good length. However with the Big One being the only Hyper I'd ridden and having still so much love for the ride I knew any other better Hyper would probably take the number 1 spot.

In June 2012 I finally experienced my second Hyper, EGF, and as expected it went straight to number 1, but I didn't expect it to be as good as it was, It blew my mind! Never did I expect a coaster to give me so much pleasure.

I've ridden various hypers since, and multiple GCI's which I though may all stand a chance of hitting the number 1 spot, but in all honestly none have come close. It's going to take something special to beat EGF.
 

Casio

Mega Poster
Pre 2004: I guess probably Big Thunder Mountain in Paris was the most fun ride I'd been on up til that point, in the Summer I went to Thorpe for the first time and loved it, I wasn't ranking, but Nemesis Inferno certainly was favourite.

2004: I got on Nemesis at the end of the year and I started ranking, but nothing challenged Nemesis for 4 years

2008: I went to Florida, and although some rides disappointed me (Hulk, Montu) Kraken easily beat out Nemesis to take number one.

2012: Aside from PortAventura (Khan went to no. 2) I hadn't ridden many new coasters since '08, but I went to California in the Summer and X2 surpassed Kraken, which is where we stand today.

Tonnerre de Zeus have X2 a run for its money a couple of weeks ago, but it doesn't quite have the power to match it.
 

Chris Coasters

Strata Poster
I never really liked coasters and use to be terribly afraid of them. Then I gradually thought they were cool but still never really got interested in them. I had only been to Seaworld Orlando and Magic Kingdom when I was in 4th grade so I didn't ride much and was still afraid. The only other parks I went to were Canobie Lake Park a couple times and my class trip to Lake Compounce in 2010. I hadn't been on very many coasters and you are probably thinking Boulder Dash changed it. At the time of the class trip I still didn't care about riding coasters. I just thought they were fun and wasn't even close to how I feel about coasters now. I still remember the date. August 20th 2010 my uncle took my bestfriend and I to Six Flags New England thats when it changed. Most of the day I was afraid to ride Bizarro so I settled for rides like Thunderbolt, Cyclone, Flashback, and Mind Eraser. It was getting late and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't go on just like I did with Zoomerang so it was time. We got in line for Bizarro waited about 2 hours and got on around 8 at night. Bizarro is what made me love coasters. At the time it was the highest and fastest one I had been on and it blew me away. It was such a perfect ride I just wanted to keep riding coasters. Then came trips to Hersheypark, Dorney Park, Universal Studios/ Islands of Adventure, Dollywood, and Luna Park. No coaster at those places was able to overthrow Bizarro. Until my Cedar Point trip. With Knoebels, Kennywood, and Cedar Point I knew my favorite coasters would be changed up a bit and had a feeling Bizarro would finally be knocked out. Kennywood couldn't beat Bizarro and nither could Knoebels. But Cedar Point did. Millennium and Gatekeeper both beating Bizarro with TTD right behind it at 4. After reriding Bizarro around a week ago I can still easily say it was one of my favorites just not number one anymore. It had a good reign of almost 3 years. Sorry for the length I just really like this topic. :--D
 

BBH

Giga Poster
Pre-2011 I hadn't ridden any coasters except for a Wisdom Dragon Wagon that got taken down and Kiddieland's Little Dipper, so up until two years ago that was all I had.


Then I went to Six Flags in 2011 and it was Batman: The Ride that escalated to the number one spot. I returned in 2012 and my rankings shifted dramatically, with X-Flight going to number one and Batman dropping several spots.

This year I visited Silver Dollar City, where Outlaw took the number one spot, and Wildfire and Powder Keg took three and four, respectively.
 

njn63

Mega Poster
Pre 1998 - Big Thinder Mountain Railroad
1998-2004 - Matterhorn
2004-2007 - Rock n Roller Coaster
2007-2012 - Beast - First major wooden coaster and it was a treat. Just wish I didn't skip Son of Beast while I was there.
2012-2013 - El Toro - Mind = blown
2013+ - Millennium Force - I know some people will question that over El Toro but the first words out of my mouth after riding Millennium were that the ride is perfect.

Probably can exclude anything before 2007 because we only went to Disney parks when I was a kid and most of my personal travel wasn't to theme parks until recently.
 

nealbie

CF Legend
Pre 1998 Big Thunder Mountain, Disneyland Paris

1998-2001 The Dragon, LEGOLAND

2001-2005 Nemesis, Alton Towers

2005-2010 Dragon Khan, PortAventura

2010-Present Tonnerre de Zeus, Parc Asterix
 

Jason Voorhees

Hyper Poster
I visited a ghetto fair with a Wacky Worm and a Wild Mouse there. Currently the Wild Mouse was my favorite coaster.

Then I visited WDW in Febuary 2010 but did not ride all the coasters. My favorite there at the time though was Expedition Everest.

Then I went to WDW in December 2011 and rode all the coasters. Rock 'N' Roller Coaster was my favorite.

Then I took a trip to Cleveland to visit my uncle's parents for their 50th anniversary. I only rode 7 coasters at Cedar Point but I ended up with Blue Streak as my favorite coaster.

In May 2013 I took a trip to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg and visited Dollywood. Wild Eagle was my favorite coaster.

In June 2013 I took a trip to SFOG and Carowinds. Goliath was my favorite coaster and it still is currently.
 

tribar

Mega Poster
Pre 2007 Whizzer
2007-2010 Raging Bull
2010-2011 American Eagle
2011-2012 Magnum
2012-present 3 way tie between Magnum, Skyrush, and Stormrunner
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
Pre - 2010: Yankee Canonball
Spring 2010: Incredible Hulk (probably would've been Dragon Challenge, but it was closed for Harry Potter World Construction)
Summer 2010: Bizarro SFNE
Summer 2012 - Present: TTD (Was expecting Millennium to be my favorite, but I enjoyed TTD a bit more)
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
1993 - Texas Giant - First big coaster I went on, and was my fave until I went to AT
1998 - Nemesis - None of the roughness from TG, soooo much intensity and unrelenting. Blew my mind.
2006 - Stealth - The rush and fear I felt got me, the adrenaline took this above Nemesis briefly.
2007 - Nemesis - Realized I made a huge mistake when I went back on in the rain, firmly number 1 again.

Sorry it's not more interesting lol :|
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Haven't a clue on timing, but number ones have included:

Raptor, Cedar Point
Millennium Force, Cedar Point
Maverick, Cedar Point
Ravine Flyer II, Cedar Point
 

bmac

Giga Poster
Woah don't get ahead of yourself Hyde, Ravine Flyer has no chance of being moved to Cedar Point.
 

rtotheizzo17

Hyper Poster
2000 (Year I think I started riding coasters) - 2004 Montu
2005 - Thunderhead
2006 - 2009 Goliath over Georgia
2010 - 2012 El Toro
2013 - Skyrush

What does the future hold? I dunno. I don't think there is anything stateside that will bump off Skyrush, maybe Outlaw Run or NTG. Dont have any plans to go internationally for the foreseeable future.
 

andrus

Giga Poster
Having only been to scandinavian parks in my youth I wasn't that impressed with casters. I guess my favourite was Hang Over, a Vekoma invertigo at Liseberg that I probably would be disgusted by if I rode it today...

So, in 2009 I made a visit to my first real theme park: Port Aventura. I imdeditaley fell in love with the place! It was so big, so beautifully landscaped and the rides where so much bigger than back home in Sweden!! The coaster that impressed me the most was Dragon Khan. Eight freakin huge inversions in what I thought was an unbeatable coaster back then!

This was also when I became a coaster enthusiast. I imediately decided to look for new parks, and later that same year I visited britain. Thorpe and Alton was at the menue. Pre-visit I thought that Nemesis was the one coaster that would challenge Dragon Khan, but I wasn't very impressed by the Alton invert. Instead I was in for a big surprice at Thorpe: namely Sthealth. The launch on Stealth was sublime! The top hat looked huge and provided some nice airtime, and I was in love!

Stealth remained my number one coaster for a long time. I thought of changeing my #1 to both Black Mamba and Troy, but on a second thought neither one of them provided the adrenaline rush that Stealth did. It wasn't until last year that Skyrush took over the throne. This magnificent piece of engineering was something that I had never experienced before! The speed, the force and the airtime was unparalleled to anything I hade ridden before!! It wasn't until the next day, when I rode I305, that I experienced something similar :p I305 went instantly to #2. Those two coasters are by far the best ones I've been on. I don't know when, if ever, I'll experiencing a better roller coaster. At least I can't see anything at the moment that possobly could beat them. But maybe/hopefully Intamin has more of these powerhouses in store for us in the future! :)
 

tomahawk

Strata Poster
Up to probably 1998 Viper at Astroworld
1999- GhostRider
2002-Goliath
2003- X2
2009-Prowler tied, then Voyage knocked it out,
2011- Texas Giant of the RMC variety

2014 hopefully I get new creds?
 

caffeine_demon

Strata Poster
so - About mid 90's to 2009 - Nemesis - the only trip that came close to beating those was florida in 06 - loved montu and kumba, but nemesis still had the edge

2009 - Germany/Denmark live - collossos firmly took over as #1, piraten just below nemesis

2012 - US live - Bizarro took the #1 spot, and skyrush 2.
later in 2012, silver star at europa park overtook nemesis on my second trip there!
 

Intricks

Strata Poster
Re: Past & Present favourite coasters

I believe my order went like this:

Steel Phantom (from 94)
Hulk (2000-2013)
X2 (2013 - present)
 
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