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Rank the water coasters you've ridden

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Water rides and roller coasters have coexisted for many years, but in 1998, Mack decided to combine the two when they built Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld Orlando; with that, they created the water coaster! Since then, Mack have built many more (both traditional water coasters and slightly more ambitious rides like SuperSplashes and PowerSplashes), and other manufacturers like Intamin and Premier Rides have dipped their toes into the water coaster market. So my question to you today is; how would you rank this unique ride type? How would you rank all of the water coasters you've done?

Personally, I've only done one water coaster at present:
  1. Journey to Atlantis - SeaWorld Orlando (Mack Water Coaster) - Funnily enough, the only water coaster I've currently done is actually the prototype. And Journey to Atlantis is an interesting one, as there's not all that much coaster to judge in this case. The dark ride section is OK if not mind-blowing, with some nice theming in places, but I stayed practically bone dry, and the coaster section I did experience on there was pretty rough; it definitely jostled you around a fair amount, from memory, and it did detract a fair amount for me. Overall, JTA is not one of my favourite attractions, if I'm being honest, but it's admittedly some years since I've done it, having last ridden back in 2016 (and I only did it once back then, at that). 4/10, #58/79 overall
I am hopefully going to be doing both Poseidon and Atlantica in April, however, so my water coaster count should hopefully increase to 3 after Europa. I'm particularly interested to ride Poseidon, as I'm intrigued to see what a water coaster with a fuller coaster section is like.

But how would you rank the water coasters you've done?
 
I've ridden all 3 journey to atlantis coasters and well... eh. The SD and Orlando ones are a little bit better than the SA one because of the theming, but they're not really anything special.
 
Including the broader definition of 'water coaster', I'd go:

1. The Flying Dutchman (Efteling)
2. Pulsar (Walibi Belgium)
3. Atlantica Supersplash (Europa Park)
4. Supersplash (Plopsaland De Panne)
5. Poseidon (Europa Park)

The Flying Dutchman kinda wins purely on theme and the indoor section. If it wasn't for that, then Pulsar is the most entertaining.
Poseidon is fairly uncomfortable and unremarkable in my opinion.
 
I have only rode The Mack water coaster, Journey To Atlantis at Seaworld San DIego, Honestly a pretty mid ride: lift hill, big flume splashdown, calm river section, tilting elevator lift, big roller coaster type drop, and then a banked turn into a final splashdown. Out of the 3 Journey to Atlantis rides, this is the 2nd best
 
I admittedly don't love water coasters as I really don't love getting wet at parks. They are often at the bottom of my priority list at the parks that have them and I've been known to outright skip them, but nevertheless, here is my list...

1. Speed (Energylandia) - It's really tall, fast, and has a decently long coaster bit. Plus, I didn't get very wet.
2. Storm Coaster (Sea World) - While on the shorter side, it tracked well and I loved the theming of it. I quite liked it actually. I might have even ridden it twice.
3. Journey to Atlantis (SeaWorld San Diego) - Unpopular opinion, but this one has more coaster than the other JTAs so I enjoyed it more.
4. Poseidon (Europa Park) - The theming is nice and it's a decently long ride, but it was hurt by the fact that it was pretty jerky.
5. Journey to Atlantis (SeaWorld Orlando) - The theming is nice, but there's not much coaster to it.
6. Journey to Atlantis (SeaWorld San Antonio) - There's just not much to it.
 
Oh no, here we go.

I feel I have to justify ranking these with some arbitrary thoughts because there's barely any relevance. They're all glorified water rides that happen to have the bonus of being a cred. Ish.

1. Crazy Waves - Guangzhou Sunac Land - The fun of an Atlantica Supersplash with an extended dark ride section and cool effects. Also comes with free ponchos!
2. Polar Explorer - Chimelong Ocean Kingdom - The fun of a Poseidon with real live Polar Bears and such.
3. Walrus Splash - Chimelong Ocean Kingdom - The fun of an Atlantica Supersplash with real live Sealions and such.
4. Tiger Leaping Gorge - Colourful Yunnan Paradise - The fun of a Walrus Splash without animals, but with geysers.
5. Poseidon - Europa Park - The fun of the Poseidon. Station looks cool.
6. Skatteøen - Djurs Sommerland - Poseidon but it does less. First few seconds are nicely themed.
7. Storm Coaster - Sea World Australia - Poseidon but it does less. Last few seconds are nicely themed. Mandatory lockers suck.
8. Atlantica Supersplash - Europa Park - The fun of the Atlantica Supersplash. Station looks cool.
9. Jurassic River - Cavallino Matto - This one's a real stretch, essentially a log flume with some dinosaurs.
10. Hydro Racer - Xishuangbanna Sunac Land - I don't really like these, they're not thrilling enough to justify the extra faff. This one was a walk on, mostly dry and the least unpleasant (not least because I had a boat to myself).
11. Speed - Energylandia - As above, bigger queue, more bodies, more wet.
12. Divertical - Mirabilandia - One of the most unpleasant queues and subsequent soakings I've ever experienced.


That's with RCDB filtering 'Water Coaster' anyway, feels like there's stuff missing but it's probably the ones that got culled like Aktium, which is basically Supersplash with two drops and no backwards 🤷‍♂️
 
Considering I haven't ridden a huge number of coasters, I've actually been on a surprisingly large number of water coasters, which I would rank as follow:

1. Pulsar, Walibi Belgium (Mack PowerSplash) - a lot of fun, using the SRQ on a crowded Saturday, I managed to get 7 rides on my visit and I think I finished each one of them with a huge grin on my face. Great ride and I'm happy to see that more of these are finally starting to pop up.

2. DiVertical, Mirabilandia (Intamin Water Coaster) - I think there's a bit of a soft spot/bias for this one. It's probably not as good as this high of a ranking suggests, but I think this was probably the first coaster for which I closely followed the entire construction process and I've also thoroughly enjoyed the two rides I managed to do a week after it first opened. But it's been almost a decade and about a 250 new coasters ridden since, so my opinion on it might change quite drastically once I finally manage to re-ride it.

3. Storm Coaster, Sea World (Mack Water Coaster) - really good fun, some great themeing, smooth tracking and a nice indoor splashdown for the finale. Last of the good ones on my list, I guess

4. Vliegende Hollander, Efteling (KumbaK) - an amazing dark ride, but very much lacking in the coaster department. When it comes to an overall experience, it would probably come 2nd after Pulsar, but purely as a coaster? Nah...

5. Armada Invencible, Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (Mack SuperSplash) - these don't do a whole much. They're fine water rides, but don't do a whole much of the coaster-y stuff. I give this one a bit of an edge thanks to its lush surroundings that make it pretty photogenic.

6. Atlantica SuperSplash, Europa Park (Mack SuperSplash) - same as above, but sans the greenery and plus the big woodie hugging it.

7. Poseidon, Europa Park (Mack Water Coaster) - loved this one on my first two visits, but it was god-awfully rough in 2016. It used to be a really fun ride, so I hope the re-track will manage to bring it back to its former glory

8. SuperSplash, Plopsaland (Mack SuperSplash) - yeah, a pure +1, hardly memorable in any aspect

9. Flume Ride, E-DA Theme Park (abc rides) - god, I hated this one. Hardly any coaster bits, despite what rcdb leads you to believe in its 'Notes' section and the splashdown was so incredibly soaking that I didn't manage to dry up for the rest of the day. Just an overall bad experience that I would never want to repeat. And also some bad luck that I ended up on the first boat after some downtime, so I didn't realize everyone was wearing ponchos until it was too late.

There, I think that's it? Coaster-count doesn't classify Pulsar and VH as water coasters, so it's entirely possible that I missed something else outside of these 9
 
I'll be using the term 'water coaster' very liberally here...

1. Pulsar (Walibi Belgium)
This is just so much much; it had no right being as fun as it is tbh

2. Speed (Energylandia)
I just really liked this. I know people don't rate the ride and its clones highly, but I don't get why - they're just a good bit of fun.

3. Vliegende Hollander (Efteling)
Theming indoors is incredible. But the jerkiness just before the lift hill and the bland coaster side of things outside drags it down.

4. Supersplash (Plopsaland)
Eh, it's fine, quirky lift hill. A stretch calling it a cred, but it is definitely a cred.
 
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