The 26 year wait for a ride.

[caffeine_demon]

Back in 1986, an English documentary programme called "QED" had a show about roller coasters + thril rides, called "The Most Swirling Swinging Sliding Spinning Up-and-Down Ride of Your Life".

Clips can be found on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1unVsyuMezE

Amongst the clips of pirate ships, enterprises, wave swingers etc. they showed a first gen intamin drop tower. I'd wanted to go on one ever since - and I finally got the cred at dorney park on the live!

Has anyone else had any seriously long waits between finding out about a ride, and actually going on it?

Also worth noting are my waits to ride Ultimate, the big one and shockwave at drayton manor - heard about all of them at Uni (early-mid 90s), rode them in 2006 and 7!

I also waited about 25 years for a reride on space mountain at disney world!

 

[Treeis]

I remember when I was really little, I loved Chessington World of Adventures and RCT1. I dont think it clicked that I was the only one who liked coasters this much. Anyway, something I used to do was go on the internet and look at pictures of real life rollercoasters. Big ones, B&Ms and such. It was fascinating.

One website I perticulaly enjoyed was this small one called...oh what was it...oh yeah, "Coasterforce". They had park guides and the Alton towers one fascinated me the most. Nemesis in perticular, there was just something about it. It was like the vampire...but bigger. It had rivers of blood, it went upside down of all things! And everyone was saying it was the best thing since sliced bread. Imagine if I could actually ride that beast...

Anyway cut to many many years later, and Im on a family holiday in the midlands staying in a YHA. On the final day they suprise me and tell me that we are going to Alton towers. ALTON TOWERS! I cant believe it. Im ecstatic on the car journey to the towers. Everything looks like chessington, but...but...bigger. And clearner. I knew instantly what my first ride would be. I ran all the way to the forbidden kingdom, using the park map as help.

I queue for the front seat, sit down on the far left and the ride starts. Best ride of my life. I knew it would be intense but I had no idea to what degree. It was phenomenal and literally breath taking. I still recall that day over and over again in my head. That ride, that beast, was worth the wait.

 

[Hyde]

The Arrow Shuttle Loop.

There are only three in the world, and with new roller coasters coming in - old ones often find themselves be removed as they reach old age. These Shuttle Loops were all the rage in the 80s, but obviously have diminished.

However, I was lucky enough to hop on one while in Oklahoma City, and it was a brilliant ride!

 

[madhjsp]

^ Wow I had no idea they had become that rare! Now I feel pretty happy that I managed to ride the one in Elitch Gardens as a little kid about 12 years ago

The two coasters that readily come to mind for me in this category are Millennium Force and Afterburn.

Millie was built right around the time I was starting to get over my initial fear of roller coasters and starting to really get into them. For years I looked at pictures & video of it, and built Giga coasters like it in RCT2, just blown away by how massive it looked. In 2007, I finally convinced my family to make the trip to Cedar Point, and even though TTD and Maverick had been installed in the meantime, guess which coaster I was most looking forward to riding?

The other one, Afterburn, comes from the fact that my family has been taking our beach vacations at Hilton Head, SC since about 1995. Our route down interstate 77 takes us right past Carowinds, so after Afterburn was built in 1999, I got to see it several times each year without ever actually getting to ride it until my first visit to the park in 2010. It got to be pretty frustrating once I started to get less scared & more excited by coasters, driving that close to what looked like a pretty good B&M invert but never getting a chance to ride, because the rest of my family didn't want to sacrifice a day at the beach for a day at a park they didn't have high expectations for. I didn't get to go until I got my brother on board with the idea of taking a separate car and leaving our vacation a day early to go to the park.

 

[valleyfair!]

Well sounds like Flying Turns will be about a 26 year wait for everyone!

I haven't been an enthusiast long enough to say I've had an extraordinary long wait to ride or get a re-ride after many years yet. From when I joined CF I heard everyone rave about Alton Towers and Nemesis so after 4 or 5 years I finally made it out there and that was great! Still waiting to see how the hype of Voyage and Boulder Dash are gonna hold up for me in the future.

 

[nadroJ]

Not with a particular ride but there have been a couple of parks which I've visited this summer that I've wanted to go to even more becoming a fully fledged enthusiast, such as Disneyland and SFMM.

 

[marc]

My longest wait was about 25 years as well maybe even more.

I saw sfmm as a kid in wonder woman and wanted to go even back then.

Also saw the film roller coaster and again wanted to go.

Saw the tv clips for their 1st standup coaster and when superman opened.

So yeah all my life I wanted to go there.

Finally went 4 years ago.

 

[Robbie]

I really wanted to go on Chessington's Vampire when it first opened, and finally managed it this year. So that's 21 years, I think.

 

[Ollie]

I want to go on unique rides. I too really want to ride a 1st Gen Drop Tower. I dont care if it's crap or rough. I just want the chance to ride a unique ride like that. Sadly I think there's only 4 or so left in the world and as they're getting older more parks are getting rid of them and I'm worried I'll never get the chance to ride one.

So I'm still waiting. I'm all for unique attractions and new experiences.

 

[insanecoastervids]

still waiting to go to sfmm

 

[bezzzzzer]

I saw Raptor in a book I had when I was about 7 and always wanted to go on it, and got on it 10 years later.

Always been determined to get where I want so the waits are never too long.

It will be a big wait until Tokyo DisneySea though I'm afraid.

 

[Luxornv]

I waited 3 years for Top Thrill Dragster. I'm a huge drag racing fan and wanted to ride TTD as soon as I had heard about it. I was still in middle school though, so the only way I could get there was if my family decided to take a vacation to Ohio. Finally, in 2006, my parents asked me if I wanted to go anywhere in particular that summer. I of course answered, "Cedar Point."

Only one other ride could possibly top this though. Being in Chicago, I have heard a lot of older people talk about Riverview. Perhaps the most legendary coaster there was The Bobs. By today's standards, it's stats aren't that intimidating. It's still a legend of the area and I've wanted to ride it ever since I heard about it. That however isn't happening since the park met its demise in 1967, 22 years before I was even born. I had heard Raging Wolf Bobs at Geauga Lake was largely based off of the Bobs from Riverview and I had hoped to get out there to ride it. That also won't happen any time soon though.

 

[Mushroom]

5 years for wipeout at pleasurewood hills, wasn't fully constructed when I last went, got on it yesterday =]

posting from somewhere in the world...

 

[bmac]

I actually had an interesting time with waiting for rides. For how many parks I visited at the ripe age of 6, I wasn't quite tall enough to ride A LOT of them. Some of the memorable ones from waaaaaay back then were Loch Ness Monster, Volcano and Medusa (NJ). Loch Ness Monster was about a 6 year wait for me because I just didn't get back to BGW until 2005. Volcano was a span of nearly 13 years and Medusa was just a next year thing.

I also waited about 4 years for a trip to Universal (2003-2007) and went again two years later for the massively disappointing H:RRR. Waited about 3 for Cedar Point (2007-2010) and about 4 years for Knoebels (2008-2012). Some parks that I still have on my list are Kennywood, Kings Island, Six Flags over Georgia and Six Flags New England. Hopefully I can get a few of those knocked off next year.

There are two rides that I never got the opportunity to ride but I still want to so badly. Drachen Fire is the first since it was SBNO back in 1999 when I went to BGW for the first time. I loved all the mystery that went into the conception of the ride (I guess you can call me addicted lol). The second is the Airplane Coaster, which was located in Rye, New York. I got hooked into that ride after a bad google search lead me to a ye olde time youtube vid (which is linked in the old coaster footage thread). I would love for someone to build a replica of it soon, don't care where in the US I would travel cross country to ride it.

EDIT: I also waited about 10 years for the Astroland Cyclone (which was my 100th coaster) last year, managed to make my dad lose his glasses which was originally a feat left only by Great Adventure's Viper. I'm also proud to have been on 5 different whips, 4 sets of Flyers, BOTH North American speed carousels and all the other flat rides crammed into the parks I've been to so far. Guess that would be the contributing reason to why I'm both a park enthusiast and a coaster enthusiast at such a young age.

 

[ava1enzue1a]

Apollo's Chariot, wanted to ride it 9 years before I actually got to.