Coaster Hipster
Giga Poster
This summer I am in the US mainly for studying but I also wanted to enjoy the fabulous rollercoasters there! So last Monday I couldn't resist the opportunity to try my first RMC and took the bus to Agawam, MA...
The park entrance at opening time. I thought this was fairly crowded for a Monday...
I wanted to do Goliath first but the GIB was closed for the day due to a technical issue. Apparently it broke down a few days ago and an employee told me it wouldn't open again until at least the third week of August. Having heard the coaster has gotten so uncomfortable because of its new trains I felt this wasn't such a big loss after all.
I then decided to follow the advice on this forum and do Pandemonium first to avoid the ride's low capacity later. It was a decent ride actually! Some decent family fun with a nice change of direction between the two helixes. Operations were a little bit slow with the cars stacking for a little while on the brake run, something that is going to be a recurring theme today.
Moving on to a much bigger fish with Wicked Cyclone To me it looks more impressive and taller irl than in pictures. The Iron Horse makes a distinctive roaring sound which I actually find appealing. The queue goes inside the ride's layout which offers some nice picture spots. Too bad I didn't take one of the Zero G Stall, it looks so elegant from the queue :|
The ride itself is really, really good but not mindblowing imo. The airtime is numerous, relentless and very agressive. The Zero G Stall is very enjoyable but not as snappy as I hoped. I still prefer regular Zero Gs though but this is a nice change. There are some weird and fun laterals throughout the ride and notably this banked airtime hill that was pretty funky. The barrel rolls provided some nice floaterness with a little bit of light laterals as well. Not the highlight of the coaster but definitely an enjoyable and good for variety element.
Now the seating is not as comfortable as in a Mack hyper or even Intamin mega I feel. There is a little bump on the outside of the train which makes lining your legs a little awkward. Also not a big fan of the shin guards. Then again I'm being very nit-picky
I managed to get 5 rides during the day but none on the front row because the operators do not let you choose your row. Oh well... After hesitating for quite a while, I think I still prefer Goliath (WH) slightly. WC does so much more but it lacks the big forceful G+ moment that Goliath's first drop offers. But at #4 it is still obviously an excellent coaster.
Because I am not going for the credit (shocking!), Thunderbolt was one of the many coasters I skipped for the day. I initially wanted to ride it but after seeing the long wait line for it I decided against it.
Same thing for Mind Eraser. Having ridden a few others SLCs (including the first and infamous Condor at Walibi Holland), I thought it just wasn't worth the wait. I think the SLCs looks quite aesthetic actually, for all their roughness. If only they had the same comfort as the B&Ms...
Speaking of which, Batman - The Dark Knight is the only coaster made by the Swiss duo in the park. It is pretty much your regular good but not outstanding B&M really. Some decent forces in the drop and the overall experience was fairly smooth but for a couple of headbanging in the zero-g and the second flat spin which is a slight disappointment.
But what do I see ?
The most anticipated coaster of my visit to the park, Superman the Ride looks really photogenic from most viewpoints in the park. And it is fairly well integrated within the landscape too, with some tunnels and trees around.
I rode EGF last year and I was really, really looking forward to this one. It has been trading with the German Megacoaster for #1 spot until recently. However its reputation waned a bit due to reportedly uncomfortable new restraints and a somewhat not as good as before ride experience. Still though, the on-ride POVs looked very promising and the layout is very long and full of potential airtime.
After an unnecessary 2 hour long wait which really makes me question the need for VR, I managed to get a front seat yeah On to the amazing Superman March and the lift hill starts relatively slowly before speeding up which builds up my excitement.
While impressive looking at the top, the first drop did not feel as forceful as EGF's at the bottom. And then the airtime hill that followed was good ejector, but then again, not as intense as its Holiday Park counterpart. From that point it became clear that Superman was going to be no better than #2 at most. Thankfully the rest of the layout was really really good with some powerful airtime especially during the back-to-back camelbacks. The first helix is pretty fun too.
Overall, Superman has the better layout on paper but it just lacks that tiny bit of intensity to match EGF pure glorious awesomeness. I managed to get a second ride right at the back which was really good as well, maybe not as powerful on the first few airtime hills but the rest of the layout makes up for it.
Six Flags NE gave me a good impression, the park had some decent greenery to it, it doesn't feel like a parking lot like I feared. It has an amazing top 2 coasters and solid complement rides with Pandemonium and Batman but a few crappy Vekomas as well. The operation were a bit slow to my disappointment but that is not a big surprise. I really don't regret going there but I won't go again immediately. It was fun discovering RMC though!
The park entrance at opening time. I thought this was fairly crowded for a Monday...
I wanted to do Goliath first but the GIB was closed for the day due to a technical issue. Apparently it broke down a few days ago and an employee told me it wouldn't open again until at least the third week of August. Having heard the coaster has gotten so uncomfortable because of its new trains I felt this wasn't such a big loss after all.
I then decided to follow the advice on this forum and do Pandemonium first to avoid the ride's low capacity later. It was a decent ride actually! Some decent family fun with a nice change of direction between the two helixes. Operations were a little bit slow with the cars stacking for a little while on the brake run, something that is going to be a recurring theme today.
Moving on to a much bigger fish with Wicked Cyclone To me it looks more impressive and taller irl than in pictures. The Iron Horse makes a distinctive roaring sound which I actually find appealing. The queue goes inside the ride's layout which offers some nice picture spots. Too bad I didn't take one of the Zero G Stall, it looks so elegant from the queue :|
The ride itself is really, really good but not mindblowing imo. The airtime is numerous, relentless and very agressive. The Zero G Stall is very enjoyable but not as snappy as I hoped. I still prefer regular Zero Gs though but this is a nice change. There are some weird and fun laterals throughout the ride and notably this banked airtime hill that was pretty funky. The barrel rolls provided some nice floaterness with a little bit of light laterals as well. Not the highlight of the coaster but definitely an enjoyable and good for variety element.
Now the seating is not as comfortable as in a Mack hyper or even Intamin mega I feel. There is a little bump on the outside of the train which makes lining your legs a little awkward. Also not a big fan of the shin guards. Then again I'm being very nit-picky
I managed to get 5 rides during the day but none on the front row because the operators do not let you choose your row. Oh well... After hesitating for quite a while, I think I still prefer Goliath (WH) slightly. WC does so much more but it lacks the big forceful G+ moment that Goliath's first drop offers. But at #4 it is still obviously an excellent coaster.
Because I am not going for the credit (shocking!), Thunderbolt was one of the many coasters I skipped for the day. I initially wanted to ride it but after seeing the long wait line for it I decided against it.
Same thing for Mind Eraser. Having ridden a few others SLCs (including the first and infamous Condor at Walibi Holland), I thought it just wasn't worth the wait. I think the SLCs looks quite aesthetic actually, for all their roughness. If only they had the same comfort as the B&Ms...
Speaking of which, Batman - The Dark Knight is the only coaster made by the Swiss duo in the park. It is pretty much your regular good but not outstanding B&M really. Some decent forces in the drop and the overall experience was fairly smooth but for a couple of headbanging in the zero-g and the second flat spin which is a slight disappointment.
But what do I see ?
The most anticipated coaster of my visit to the park, Superman the Ride looks really photogenic from most viewpoints in the park. And it is fairly well integrated within the landscape too, with some tunnels and trees around.
I rode EGF last year and I was really, really looking forward to this one. It has been trading with the German Megacoaster for #1 spot until recently. However its reputation waned a bit due to reportedly uncomfortable new restraints and a somewhat not as good as before ride experience. Still though, the on-ride POVs looked very promising and the layout is very long and full of potential airtime.
After an unnecessary 2 hour long wait which really makes me question the need for VR, I managed to get a front seat yeah On to the amazing Superman March and the lift hill starts relatively slowly before speeding up which builds up my excitement.
While impressive looking at the top, the first drop did not feel as forceful as EGF's at the bottom. And then the airtime hill that followed was good ejector, but then again, not as intense as its Holiday Park counterpart. From that point it became clear that Superman was going to be no better than #2 at most. Thankfully the rest of the layout was really really good with some powerful airtime especially during the back-to-back camelbacks. The first helix is pretty fun too.
Overall, Superman has the better layout on paper but it just lacks that tiny bit of intensity to match EGF pure glorious awesomeness. I managed to get a second ride right at the back which was really good as well, maybe not as powerful on the first few airtime hills but the rest of the layout makes up for it.
Six Flags NE gave me a good impression, the park had some decent greenery to it, it doesn't feel like a parking lot like I feared. It has an amazing top 2 coasters and solid complement rides with Pandemonium and Batman but a few crappy Vekomas as well. The operation were a bit slow to my disappointment but that is not a big surprise. I really don't regret going there but I won't go again immediately. It was fun discovering RMC though!