Rides that just... lost it.

[Edward M]

By lost it, I mean rides that used to be a favorite of yours but just got worse or more disappointing. They just seemed to lack what they once had. This could be on a second ride or on a visit a decade later. Any ride that just slipped down your rankings significantly.

Two notable ones for me are, actually, in the same park, Mystery Mine and Thunderhead. Mystery Mine just really felt rough and meandering when, at one point, it had been one of my favorite coasters. Thunderhead was still good fun, but it was also much rougher than I had expected it to be. I remember it being quite smooth, but, 4 years later, that was no longer the case.
Two others are Dueling Dragons and Batman: the Ride. With Dragons, it once felt very special with the intertwined track and incredibly done near misses. Now, it just feels like two subpar B&M inverts oddly close to each other. With Batman, I once was blown away by the forces and intensity. Now, I'm over it and kind of dread having to ride them again.

 

[GuyWithAStick]

Definitely Raging Bull for me. Every single season, it just keeps moving down the list. This ride used to provide a decent amount of floater air. Nothing spectacular, but it was nice. Now, I barely come out of my seat on some of the places that once had some of the most sustained airtime in the park. There are still some nice moments on the ride- the first drop in the back is still one of the best I've done, but it just doesn't provide as much as what it used to.

 

[jayjay]

For longer periods between rerides, it's hard to know what actually got worse and what was just drowned out by much better rides in the meantime. For example, when I was eleven, Whirlwind at Camelot was the best thing on the planet. When I returned on the 2007 live, I was amazed how rough it was. Or was it always rough, and I didn't care? I distinctly remember Flamingoland's Corkscrew being a headbanger when I was ten, so maybe Whirlwind just dropped the ball.

If I do two rides in a day, the first ride often has moments that catch me out, so it's much more enjoyable. OzIris's pops of airtime are great, but even better when you don't expect that out of an invert. So it went from a nailed on #1, to a tentative top spot. Getting used to going through the motions has also dulled rides like Nemesis for me too (fortunately front row still kicks ass).

 

[Will]

Blackpool's Big Dipper is the first one that springs to mind. I loved it when I first rode back in 2004, but it's now utterly unrideable.
Similarly, Infusion is a hell of a lot rougher at Blackpool than it ever was at Southport - although it was never brilliant!
The only other one I can think of at the moment is Colorado Adventure, which is not ageing gracefully.

 

[oriolat2]

Stampida, no doubt. I absolutely loved it back in 2000-2002, when it still ran the original PTCs. It felt out of control, it had quite a bit of airtime, it hardly ever broke down and it was smooth as a wooden coaster can be (to the point where I could marathon it for an hour straight without leaving my seat).

 

[Pokemaniac]

Thundercoaster.

It's a sad story.

 

[ECG]

Goliath at Walibi Holland for me. Still smooth and quite a good ride, but doesn't impress as much as it used to.

Definitely Raging Bull for me... Now, I barely come out of my seat on some of the places that once had some of the most sustained airtime in the park.

What? I've ridden it many times over the years and it never had sustained airtime. The trims have always killed that.

 

[GuyWithAStick]

^The hill and drop directly after the MCBR are what I'm referring to. I used to be out of my seat for a solid 3-4 seconds on the hill. Now I barely stay afloat for even 2 seconds.

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[tomahawk]

Twisted Colossus

Now, there's a few factors involved in the difference. First, it was 50 degrees cooler the second day (60 Fahrenheit compared to almost 110) so that definitely impacts the ride as it was first train of the day, compared to a few hours after opening. Also, I had just rode Outlaw Run two weeks earlier and had best coaster experience of my life. It was at this time though, I realized how half assed they made it.

They took two long coasters, and made one short coaster, extended by a lift hill that is twice the time length of the entire ride. Granted, the stall, outer 90, and airtime are amazing, it's killed by the second lift. It hits the breaks both times way too fast.

I do need to ride again, but I was let down.

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[MestnyiGeroi]

When The Revolution at Magic Mountain first opened up, it scared the hell out of people (there was a "chicken exit" in the station that was regularly used). For years, I considered it an intense coaster with monster drops at the beginning.

But the last time I went on it, the entire experience felt to me like a mild family coaster. Those monster drops seemed like gentle hills. Now I honestly don't know whether it's because coasters have gotten so much more intense and I have ridden so many in the intervening decades, or if it's that they've altered/trimmed all the life out of the coaster -- or some combination of the two.

 

[Smithy]

Dragon Khan a little bit.

Went from being up there as my favourite coaster, to then being a bit painful and rough to ride and not really offering as much of a thrill severla years later, admittedly due to having ridden 50+ rides since.