Whilst my personal selection from 2014 was a little lacking (compared to the overall quality of this decade at least) 2015 is looking to be absolutely stacked. Everything in this list today is, at the very least, incredible. What a year for the coaster industry this one turned out to be!
#10 Acrobat – Nagashima Spa Land (Japan)
Much as I’ve enjoyed the B&M wing coasters that have been popping up over the last few years, for me the company’s Flying Coaster type is a cut above the rest. They generally have far more to offer in terms of extremities and often have elements that would put any seasoned rider out of their comfort zone. Acrobat is admittedly a bit of a lazy clone of Florida’s Manta, complete with matching trains that don’t tie in with the loose theme, but I can’t fault the insanely intense ride experience.
#9 Harpy – Xishuangbanna Sunac Land (China)
So why not have two in a row? I still can’t quite believe how good this ride is. A combination of a fear of clones and a fear of spoilers almost got the better of me and had me originally dismissing Harpy as not worth the effort. In the end it more than paid off the extra lengths you generally have to go to get to this remote Chinese park, by virtue of it’s top tier flyer layout packed with a wicked range of sensations.
#8 Junker – PowerPark (Finland)
Another manufacturer honing their skills and bringing their best coaster model closer to perfection this year was Gerstlauer. Junker is a quintessential Infinity Coaster with a punchy launch, tight manouevres in those tiny trains, powerful airtime and creative inversions. There’s not a dull moment to be found on board.
2015 was the birth of the Jungle Trailblazers, a collection of Gravity Group woodies that opened as the headline attractions of various Fantawild parks throughout China. The fact that so many of them share the same name does them a disservice, as they make use of several different layouts that are all world class in their own right, yet tend to be rather overlooked from an outsiders perspective due to a lack of individual identity. This particular version is notable for having a rare wooden coaster inversion and, to me, for having an insane run of airtime pops all in a row.
#6 Fury 325 – Carowinds (USA)
A busy year for B&M, who also put out their largest creation to date. The beast that is Fury 325 remains the tallest coaster with a traditional lift hill and marked a drastic shift in style for their model of hyper coaster. Rather than largely focusing on those signature camelback hills, Fury performs a very inspired set of manouevres at high speed as it winds its way out across the entrance plaza, into the car park and beyond. It’s a visual spectacle that’s wonderfully presented, as well as a very standout and special ride experience.
#5 Schwur des Kärnan – Hansa Park (Germany)
Gerstlauer also had their sights on something big for 2015. Previous local customer Hansa Park had some lofty ambitions to put a vertical lift hill that reaches over 200ft tall inside a building styled like a medieval tower in Helsingborg, Sweden. Things go on in this tower that had not been seen on a coaster ever before and then once you burst out into the open air at over 80Mph, it’s a ridiculous and intense hyper coaster experience, again like no other. How are we only at number 5?
Well partly because there’s still more Jungle Trailblazers to come. This Wuhu version is the only layout that currently cannot be found anywhere else and also features one of those unnatural inversions. It also plays on some similar beats to China’s very first wooden coaster, with an epic combination of larger and smaller airtime hills that the Gravity Group pull off so well.
#3 Wicked Cyclone – Six Flags New England (USA)
RMC were solidifying themselves amongst the best of the best by now, putting up smash hit after smash hit. The fact that this conversion from an out-of-date wooden coaster into a vicious, storm chasing, world beating experience filled with the perfect blend of extreme airtime and glorious inversions has become bread and butter to the manufacturer by now is simply scary.
#2 Twisted Colossus – Six Flags Magic Mountain (USA)
So give them the opportunity to reimagine an iconic and massive racing woodie at another park on the other side of the country and then be astounded by the result. I’ve written at length about how this is my favourite RMC to date on here and it’s a personal top 5 in the world. Yet we’re still not done here for this year.
My favourite Gravity Group creation trumps my favourite RMC for now, by the tiniest of margins up at the top of course. Something about the raw-er experience of an actual wooden coaster at the absolute best it can be, along with the unpredictability that can bring just appeals to me slightly more and this third Jungle Trailblazer was such an incredible shock to the system upon a first ride for countless reasons. I had no idea they could be this good.
Well with a list so packed full of superlatives can there really be anything else left in the world to threaten this bunch? Amazingly, yes. Cannibal appears to be the US equivalent of Kärnan with it’s intimidating tower structure and unorthodox design, the fact that it’s even more ‘homegrown’ in execution fascinates me. Impulse is a rare example of a Zierer Tower coaster, another string I need to add to my bow at some point to at least see how they compare with other, similar designs. On top of all their other achievements this year, B&M also went wild with a launched version of their Wing coaster by the name of Thunderbird. Something else I’ve definitely got to check out at some point.
I’ve spent most of January trying to get all the trip planning for this year back on track, so writing this series took a sideline amongst all that nervous excitement. With that in mind and how long I’ve already dragged this out, it’s going to be 52 years of coasters if I don’t finish up before the end of March (fingers crossed). Let’s give that a go at least. Something about this year strikes a chord with me, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Was there a particularly notable ride built? I think so.
#10 Altair – Cinecittà World (Italy)
Various clones on the extreme end of the spectrum could have filled this spot at the moment, with my personal 2014 roster not quite being as fleshed out as I would like it to be. Altair is one of several lap bar editions of the original record breaking 10-looper Colossus at Thorpe Park that exist in varyingconditions around the world. I wasn’t as bowled over by the experience as I had hoped. It was fun for sure, but I thought the new found freedom in the riding position would lend itself to some cool moments. Instead it mainly served to highlight how underwhelming the layout of endless inversions is.
#9 Arthur – Europa Park (Germany)
Not much of a coaster really, the Mack powered inverted hardware lends itself rather well to dark ride sections and scenery instead. Arthur pulls this off reasonably well and has a couple of magical moments to offer outside of it’s faffy queue and operational system. Padding the list a bit though I feel, things need to pick up a bit.
#8 Mine Coaster – Quancheng Euro Park (China)
This Beijing Jiuhua built mine train was a surprise hit for me, they’ve come up with a (hugely welcome) custom layout that keeps on building in intensity very nicely and it blends into that rockwork a treat, enhancing the experience even more. One of my favourite Chinese coaster designs to date.
#7 Inferno – Cinecittà World (Italy)
Back to Cinecittà again, the other Intamin coaster in the park is far more exciting, even though you can’t see it. A thrilling indoor experience complete with a powerful drop track section and some rather dark theming makes for a standout ride in this all-new-for-2014 park.
#6 FireChaser Express – Dollywood (USA)
This might be the most gorgeous family coaster ever. Gerstlauer have a real knack for this type of experience, the combination of profiling and rolling stock on these models is always spot on when trying to find that happy medium between thrilling and fun. Beyond that, who needs a drop track when you can have fire, explosions and a backwards launch?
#5 Flug der Dämonen – Heide Park (Germany)
At last we’re in the big leagues. B&M are back, with their first entry being yet another wing coaster, continuing to prove how popular they were in this decade. This flight of the demons is an experience greatly enhanced by both the visuals and the haunting soundtrack that accompanies it. A twisted mess of that signature track always looks great when embedded into a landscape and it just so happens to be a really solid, interesting layout too.
But it can’t compete with how good this bird looks, nor with how good the layout is. As a complete opposite in design, it really has a ton of room to breathe, soaring between massive elements before dipping in and out of the glorious landscape. Everything about my experience with the parrot seemed to be well thought out, it’s a masterclass in creating a signature coaster for a park.
#3 Alpina Blitz – Nigloland (France)
Here’s that other Mack Mega Coaster I promised in 2013. Though the layout of this one is highly unoriginal, being just too damn similar to Intamin’s Megalite, it’s still a top 3 today (for now). It’s testament to how incredible the ride that gave the inspiration is, that a well executed equivalent by another manufacturer is also ridiculously good. Though it doesn’t quite pack the same punch overall, their trains for this are second to none and I’d take it over any clone but Piraten, any day.
#2 OCT Thrust SSC1000
The pinnacle of the S&S air launch design for me. A breathtaking, world-beating acceleration into a massive, airtime-filled top hat, followed up an incredible sequence of elements. So many other launch coasters that came before just couldn’t deliver these things in anywhere near the same magnitude and that makes this ride really special to me. (Let’s not mention today that it’s also a clone).
#1 Helix – Liseberg (Sweden)
Oh yeah, now I remember. My favourite rollercoaster of them all was built in 2014. Still searching for that perfection.
I’m rather excited to see just how many there are still to come out of this year. It was only back in 2010 that I became worried by lists appearing to already be set in stone, though there’s loads more to look forward to today: One of the last great B&M inverts I’ve got my eye on is Banshee, I’m doubly intrigued by the seemingly mould-breaker styling and how the vest restraints will perform on that particular model. RMCs are going to be a reasonably obvious addition to these lists from now on, ridden or otherwise, with Goliath and Medusa Steel Coaster being no exception. I gave Iron Shark a shout out in 2012, so why not give it’s Colmbian clone Kráter a look in too. Certainly a rare one for the collection. I’ve heard great things about Lightning Run and am always happy to get brand new ride types under my belt, of which the one and only Chance Hyper GT-X certainly is. Nefeskesen is one of two red Intamin launch coasters in Turkey and, most enticing to me, is the custom layout of the two. You potentially can’t beat a good family-sized Gravity Group woodie like Roar-O-Saurus when it comes to consistency. Or can you? The memories of seeing super-sized Gravity Group woodie Time Travel closed, from the window of a taxi, still haunt me to this very day. This one is about as high as it gets on my to-do list, so I don’t think we can top that here, now.
Here we go again. I might be detecting the slightest hint of a drop in quality here compared to how amazing some of the progress in the last few years had been. However there are by far the biggest number of coasters yet recorded in the RCDB for the year 2013 (with a massive jump of 50), so a different kind of positive sign for the industry at the very least. With an ever expanding lineup, that’s plenty more opportunities for the future.
#10 Crazy Bird – Happy Valley Tianjin, China
S&S first put lap bars on their El Loco model a couple of years prior to this, but this was the first time I came across the combination and of course it’s a vastly superior experience for it. The freedom of movement in your upper body just adds an extra spice to all those interesting and fun elements like the stupidly steep drop and the downwards inversion.
#9 Karacho – Erlebnispark Tripsdill, Germany
Lap bars again, this time as part of Gerstlauer’s introductory year to their biggest and best ride type to date – the Infinity Coaster. Building on their brief dabble with standalone launch coasters and then launched versions of their Eurofighter model, Karacho showed a real turning point in what this lot were truly capable of with that, let’s say it again, freedom of movement. You can finally really feel all that funky stuff they’ve got going on.
#8 Gold Striker – California’s Great America
With Wood Coaster already existing I think we hit a certain point where I see rides like this as ‘just some GCI’. And just some GCI is undoubtedly a solid coaster, a loud and fast paced wooden romp that’s bags of fun at the very worst, but I just don’t get that excited about some of them, like this one, after experiencing a lot more of the diverse sections of their catalogue. Should I play the winter card? It was cold (striker).
#7 Rattenmühle – Family Park, Austria
A late entry for this series, as I had it all planned out well before I ended up in Austria last September, but a welcome one. I loved Rattenmühle, it was pretty much everything I wanted it to be as a fabulously fun Gerstlauer Bobsled and then the surprise level of the theming and detail in the station and surrounding area took it up a few gears again.
#6 Juvelen – Djurs Sommerland, Denmark
Definitely leaning towards a bit of a family-thrill approach again this year, this time with Intamin giving their Family Launch coaster a much needed boost, literally. Jet Rescue set the precedent for how good this ride type could be back in 2008 and this time with some more room to breathe, larger and faster elements they once again proved it could pack a punch and compete with the biggest of coasters.
#5 Smiler – Alton Towers, UK
Wait, this was the one and only Gerstlauer Infinity to not feature lap bars, how come it was better than Karacho? Am I a fraud? Probably, but there’s just so much more good layout going on here and Smiler has been a real grower on me over the years. It would be absolutely insane feeling those 14 different inversions with lap bars and I wish it was a thing, but I’ll just have to settle for what it is – an intense, disorientating semi-masterpiece.
#4 Full Throttle – Six Flags Magic Mountain, USA
The multi-launch features again and will continue to do well for me for all time, always. There’s something magical the way it injects an extra energy into a ride and it is particularly well needed in Full Throttle with such a short length of track to play with. That tends to be a criticism of this bold attempt from Premier Rides but I’ve ended up as one of it’s biggest fans. The ridiculousness of the size of that loop, the silly airtime coming back over the top of the same piece of structure and the fun in between – love it.
#3 Big Grizzly Mountain – Hong Kong Disneyland
I can’t get enough of the Disney mine train aesthetic, it’s such a quintessential theme park experience. Big Grizzly brought something new to the table and it was very welcome. The light-heartedness of the theme, and the stunning surroundings that were created just for this ride combined with all the surprises and tricks that the hardware has to offer just can’t fail to bring a smile to anyone’s face.
#2 Storm – Etnaland, Italy
Oh, how I wish there were more of these. With a few years to think about it, Mack must surely have seen Intamin’s Megalite design and thought ‘we can do something like that.’ Their Mega Coaster was born. Storm was all we got, other than a near-clone of the Intamin that we’ll be seeing very soon (spoilers) and it’s a blast. Not only does it carry some powerful airtime, they chucked in a gorgeous inversion for good measure and the late night openings of this off-the-beaten-track park give the opportunity for some real special moments.
#1 Fjord Flying Dragon – Happy Valley Tianjin, China
Back where we started in Tianjin, Fjord Flying Dragon was the star attraction that came with Happy Valley’s latest park and sadly the most recent time the company dealt the Gravity Group after such a strong trinity of a start. It’s the strongest of their three combined efforts for me and that’s saying something, with how much I love the 2009 winner of this series. It caught attention nonetheless and they went on to do even greater things with a certain rival park chain in China, but that’s a tale already told on here.
What else are we looking at?
I really want to try Abyss, even though it’s basically Australian Saw: The Ride, both for the alternative theme and setting and the fact that it’s just so damn obscure a location for coasters in general, all the way out there in the West. A notable absence from B&M this year after being a staple of the lists for so long. This is entirely my fault, having not yet ridden either of their 2013 creations. Gatekeeper looks rather stunning, I love the way Cedar Fair have turned a signature coaster into an eye catching entrance plaza. Nitro as it was named back at opening could well be a surprise hit, but almost undoubtedly an entry just by merit of it’s existence here. Also at Imagicaa in India, from the same year, is Deep Space, another potential hit for Premier. I love an indoor ride and in particular a space theme. Some real contenders are running loose this year in the form of a couple of RMCs I haven’t managed to pick up. Perhaps that’s why I’m seeing a bit of a downturn in 2013, it shows that I’m slipping. From everything they’ve given me so far, Iron Rattler and Outlaw Run could just go all the way to the top here. Just for fun, we’ll have a chuckle at Ring Racer. The layout isn’t going to be winning any awards and it only operated for a handful of days before it all went wrong so it’s highly unlikely it’ll happen anyway, but still, what a silly thing.
Well, the 10 rides I want from 2021 post aged horribly, but that’s not going to stop me having another go at a list for 2022. Thanks to the prolonging of the pandemic I only managed a measly 2/10 rides from the previous time around, the Belgian beasts Kondaa and Ride to Happiness. Reading it back now I can’t quite believe that my new #2 didn’t even have an official name this time last year. Thankfully they both went above and beyond in terms of salvaging 2021 for me.
Once again I’ll be looking at rides I’m actively going to try and experience this year as opposed to a standard ‘bucket list’. I’m still loathed to write posts about attractions I haven’t experienced yet, though hopefully the two workarounds I came up with continue to make it work: 1) I don’t have any nice photos for these yet – instead you can have an external link for further reading and a related picture of another ride to which I can attribute some of my expressed interest. 2) Raising expectations is a dangerous game – I can’t pretend I don’t have expectations or these lists wouldn’t exist in the first place, I just won’t rank them in any particular order.
I could once again have just filled this list with 10 rides from the 2020 & 2021 American road trip that still wasn’t to be. There were well over 100 credits planned (in no less than eight detailed itineraries by this stage) and a ton of the industrys big names on the bill. It really needs to happen this time around. I’ll just have to mention these two standouts again, they’re still a priority for this year and will remain on this list until they’re done.
(Jungle Trailblazer, Fantawild Asian Legend)
Voyage, Holiday World Originally destined to be my 1000th coaster, Voyage would likely claim to be the king of Gravity Group woodies. It has the stats to back it up, being the longest and fastest they’ve ever designed and as they are my favourite manufacturer of the moment, the desire to finally get this one under my belt is obviously rather strong. To add another layer of excitement and intrigue, the park holds an annual event intended entirely for enthusiasts and legend has it that the coaster is run at its absolute best (no trim brakes) just for them, for two nights only. We had tickets ready for both of the previous years’ events and now it looks like they’re making it more difficult to attend this year. Still need to make it happen.
(Zadra, Energylandia)
Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point The hype around this ride is inescapable as it continues to dominate every rollercoaster ranking system ever conceived. RMC are the most consistently excellent manufacturer around these days and, once again, their biggest creation to date certainly looks like a world beater. I’m still hugely conflicted about Steel Vengeance and I still don’t even know much of what it does. While of course I want it to be the best thing ever, something I’ve been searching for for over 6 years now, I don’t know if I want that best thing ever to be the same as everyone else’s best thing ever. It’s a tough spot to be in, but I’m determined not to let anything cloud my judgement when I finally get there.
Florida remains the biggest black hole in my theme park arsenal. How can I have been all over the world and still not set foot in what is arguably the capital? With the world’s largest Disney and Universal resorts and biggest named Busch Gardens and Sea World parks there’s enough in this one state to keep anyone, including me, going for weeks. The answer is, simply, I’ve never got round to it. But I want to. And as such, I’ve never even looked in great detail at what’s there. I know the obvious coaster stuff, but not the ins and outs of each resort and it now feels like I’m clinging to that rookie state for as long as possible, just to feel wide eyed and innocent one final time in this hobby.
(Mystic Manor, Hong Kong Disneyland)
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Disney’s Hollywood Studios I still know nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s a trackless dark ride, right? And, and, Star Wars. My absolute favourite film franchise. You can quote me on here as previously saying that I would get excited simply if I ever got to see Crait on an upgraded Star Tours simulator cycle (and those rides just do nothing for me, really), so the fact that there’s a brand new, specifically designed, reputedly next level Disney dark ride themed around the modern material is… well… I’m still not ready for Florida. And I don’t think I ever will be.
(Taron, Phantasialand)
Velocicoaster, Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Back in the days of Revenge of the Mummy, Universal were setting the precedent for combining thrill rides with immersive theming and I’m yet to see another project come close to matching the things that I specifically love that attraction for. Velocicoaster would seem to go down a slightly different road, perhaps inspired by ol’ Taron by being a densely decorated Intamin multi launch coaster and while I’m not the biggest Taron fan out there, my experience with Taiga has me overwhelmingly hopeful that these two giants of the industry have pulled off something as similarly unrivalled as the Mummy, in its own special way. It has actually opened since my mention of it last year and I’ve spent some time skimming over a lot of superlatives about it. There’s still also that literal, actual dream I had about this ride becoming my new #1 rollercoaster. Is that setting the bar too high?
With Europe being the only continent able to receive my attention over the past two seasons, the options left for life changing attractions are starting to get rather thin on the ground. It’s not looking to be an overly exciting year for brand new coasters either, at least not on the unprecedented scale that Belgium managed to pull off recently. I have already begun to map out another epic road trip in the style of the last two years however and if all else fails, this should be the one to watch, again.
(Lech Coaster, Legendia)
Fønix, Fårup Sommerland It’s with trepidation that I mention this one, given that I haven’t been the biggest fan of any of Vekoma’s new thrill coasters. However they may end up riding, they always look the part for sure, firmly putting themselves on my radar just to see if they one day nail it. Far from this being me jumping on any bandwagon, Fønix is, to our knowledge, the only major rollercoaster coming to Europe next year so it just has to be amazing. Please be amazing.
(Nemesis, Alton Towers)
Monster, Gröna Lund B&M inverts appear to have almost gone out of fashion by now, sadly, so it was a bit of a wildcard when this already densely packed Stockholm park announced they were getting one. The announcement took place a long time ago too, Monster was made over several years of hard effort (a shame the same can’t be said about the name) and ending up falling off of my radar somewhat. Being crammed into tight and imaginative spaces is usually very complementary to this ride type and hopefully Gröna Lund have pulled something special out of the bag like they did once before.
It was depressing to read back on my story last year about the Chinese Visa. Even though I began with the hope of it being usable until at least October, they took the decision fairly early on to invalidate all tourist visas on top of not really allowing us in anyway, so the dream was doomed from the start. With things as they are now, it’s the least likely in this list that I’ll get there again, but to be truly representative of myself I have to include some of my more far-fetched schemes and the country that still excites me the most with it’s growing theme park industry. If any opportunity arises, just know that I’ll be there. To that end, here’s 3 totally different Chinese attractions to those that I chose in 2021.
Hurricane Roller Coaster, Suzhou Amusement Land Forest World I’ve had a love for Mack since the very early days of my theme park travels, not least because they made my favourite coaster to date. To compare this new build to one of their multi-launchers seems a fair way off the mark though as Hurricane gives off a very different vibe to anything the manufacturer has done before. From huge top hat to intensely quick inversion, this one stands out like a challenge to the Intamin accelerators of old and I, for one, am rooting for it to come out on top.
Railway Guerilla, Fantawild Glorious Orient Parks My dearest Fantawild have been busy while I’ve been away and opened up entire parks worth of brand new content that I’m dying to go and try. The Glorious Orient parks now found in both Ganzhou and Ningbo are the next generation to follow the stunning Oriental Heritage series and the second of their ambitious three part phase covering the past, present and future of Chinese culture. Coverage of the attractions is hard to find at this stage and I could have picked any number of their new dark rides because, well, they regularly create some of the best in the world. All I have down in my notes for this one is railways and bombs so there has to be at least one fire effect, right? That’ll do me.
(Transformers: The Ride, Universal Studios Singapore)
This makes two items listed with a theme around a film franchise I’ve never seen, but dinosaurs have traditionally been an awesome featuring for any ride even as far back as Blackpool’s River Caves in 1905. With all the praise I throw at Fantawild, they owe a lot of their ideas to Universal and their original versions of many dark ride systems that became staples. Here Universal are themselves, in China, bringing something new to the table and I like to think that they’ve thrown everything at it to prove to the local market who’s still on top.
It can’t hurt to have one more backup plan can it? If China keep their borders closed for the forseeable, then I’ll have to look elsewhere for my travel fix to Asia. A certain country has been moving further and further up the to do list over the past few years and then things suddenly got a whole lot more interesting. Much as I look to all the old faithful destinations for attractions that meet the criteria of these lists, it’s good to remind myself that I’m a sucker for an adventure to a new land as well.
Roaring Timbers, Sun World Hon Thom Nature Park Of all announcements in recent years, none have made me do a double take quite as hard as this little shocker. The world at large had no glimpses into any of the stages of construction for a wooden coaster from GCI that has already now been completed and is ready to open next year in Vietnam. It looks lovely, luscious and full of terrain-based goodness just like my absolute favourites from the manufacturer. The ride might be a little on the short side compared to the best of the best, but I want it nonetheless.
On a personal level I’ve found this year significantly worse still. Though 2020 came as more of a shock, I still remember the optimistic days of thinking we’d be right back at it again in 2021. Instead it was just one long drawn out tease that sapped away any real hope of that being anything close to true. I came within a week of hitting yet another new longest drought of not riding a new coaster, at 183 days between the two seasons. As I sit here writing this, I worry that soon enough that figure will be threatened once more. The major US trip that was deferred from last year got stressfully re-planned and re-booked 3 consecutive months in a row based on vague promises that were never delivered. It was of course cancelled once more and the outstanding balance still looms over us to this day. As summer drew to a close it became clear that we had to take matters into our own hands again if we were to keep this hobby alive and kicking. And admittedly that part went extremely well, with the longest and most intense European road trip of all time doing all of the heavy lifting for 2021, finding some highlights in old parks and new. While I’d usually prefer to spread the load a bit throughout the year, the grab it while you can attitude seems to be the most successful in the current climate. But how successful was it in terms that matter; numbers?
Better. That’s 134 new rollercoasters for me, which is a fair amount more than last year even with the pre-covid headstart that it had. Better still, there were 49 new to me park visits, which even manages to top 2019 in terms of raw establishments visited, quality varying greatly of course. Ah, 2019, those were the days. Something not included in these graphs is the fact that I managed to spend 34 days of this year visiting theme parks. That figure just sneaks past last year and spending over a month doing what you do best on an annual basis is always something to be pleased about.
Now that quantifying everything has made me infinitely happier, let’s talk about some highlights.
The clear winner for this year and the rollercoaster that has had by far the biggest impact on me in what feels like forever was the Ride to Happiness. It delivered on so many levels ranging from intensity to re-rideability and the overall presentation of the attraction just struck a chord with me that makes the whole experience just that little bit more personal and special. I was scared by how good this ride was, the thoughts it put into my head while thinking about how to even rank it. That probably only happens a handful of times in the life cycle of an enthusiast.
After narrowly missing out on a top spot 6 years ago, Efteling are back with a win. The competition might be a little lighter this time around, with no signs of five-time winner Disney or my secret love Fantawild, but let’s not that let that detract from how good Symbolica was. The magic of the park combined with the magic of the trackless ride system results in an effortlessly joyous experience. I only wish we had taken the time to visit it much sooner when all of the special effects were operating to their fullest extent.
I’m going to break my own unwritten rule here, because I can. In spite of all the cold, hard numbers pointing to this being a stronger year than the last, I’m looking at the list of all the new-to-me parks visited this year and feeling very little inside. And this is a very important factor for me when it comes to ranking theme and amusement parks – a sense of longing. Do I miss it? Do I want to go back there right now? How did it make me feel? What made the numbers up this year was an unhealthy amount of flying visits to short-stay establishments, with the primary purpose being to bolster the count. It’s the nature of the beast for what I do with my free time at this point, but I’d much rather give the honourable mentions to parks that have significantly improved during a revisit (the Belgian beasts) than to somewhere based solely on having not been before, which has honestly never been an issue up until now. The place that invokes the strongest emotional reaction for me this year is Fantasiana. It made the mentions back in 2016 up against some incredible hard hitters. In 2021 it stands out from the crowd as a true gem of a park that in my eyes can do no wrong.
And here’s where we truly celebrate the bolstering of the count, the times when the process of visiting far outweighs any genuine reasons to like the parks involved. On a trip that went harder than ever before, there was one particular day with unrivalled intensity. We visited six different establishments in the space of around 15 hours (and over a height differential of 2000m) and in the process set a personal best for riding the most new rollercoasters in a day – one that’s infinitely more satisfying than being achieved in a single large park. The record could of course be broken again in a much more pedestrian fashion, if I ever even make it to Cedar Point that is – let’s see what 2022 brings to the table.
This year was supposed to be the end of the world if I recall correctly. Feels like we’re a lot closer to that now than we were back in 2012 but, more importantly, what was going on the coaster world at the time? Great things by the looks of it.
#10 Manta – Sea World San Diego, USA
Mack had the genius idea of taking their revolutionary launch coaster model to the next level by introducing it to the concept of multiple launches. Sadly it resulted in a rather jarring transition in which the train slows down rather than ‘hitting the launch running’, a shortcoming which future projects managed to put to shame even more strongly. Outside of that moment, it’s a perfect blend of a family thrill package with a lot to offer.
#9 Wild Eagle – Dollywood, USA
Following on from the more scary theming seen during the debut of B&Ms wing coaster in 2011, it was time to see what other parks could do with the concept. Dollywood decided to put some sweet-looking eagle shaped trains in a more eye-pleasing environment and accompany it with a fitting theme song. I love the use of landscape on this one and even without any theming of particular note it manages to do the ride type justice by creating many near-miss moments with it’s own support structure.
#8 Swarm – Thorpe Park, UK
Thorpe Park on the other hand said we’ll have the exact same alien trains and try to use them in an even more desolate landscape. This narrative worked rather well with the impending Mayan calendar apocalypse and the park did a memorable job with lore-building during the construction phase, which is perhaps even why I still associate it so strongly with 2012 to this day. It wasn’t quite the remarkable coaster we hoped for at our home park, but it’s only grown over time and offered plenty of memorable experiences along the way.
#7 Shambhala – PortAventura, Spain
Europe’s second B&M hyper after 10 long years is one of the most visually stunning pieces of coaster hardware around. The sluggish nature of the ridiculously long trains with their stadium seating appear to hold it back from delivering the types of sensations I tend to prefer from my 250ft coasters, but I can’t deny that Shambhala is a masterpiece in its own way.
#6 Verbolten – Busch Gardens Williamsburg, USA
Multiple launches, a vertical drop track and a fun storyline make this the standout attraction at Busch Gardens Williamsburg for me, even amongst a very well stacked lineup of rollercoasters. I particularly adore the little details, homages to the ride that formerly stood in the same spot and the fact that it has multiple indoor sequences make it a blast to ride over and over again.
#5 Wodan – Europa Park, Germany
Aside from some lesser-known quantities amongst their terrain-huggingmonsters, Wodan is GCI’s tallest project to date. And it shows, with this striking structure and highly memorable first drop experience that just plummets through the mess of timbur. It has some amazing queueline theming, an awesome soundtrack and really rounds off the Iceland area of the park perfectly.
#4 Dinoconda – China Dinosaur Park
After claiming the top three places in 2011, the boom in China over the last decade is showing no signs of slowing down. Dinoconda is the most recent of the rare breed that is the S&S 4D coaster and these are notorious for being one of the most extreme ride types ever created. I’m not sure my head was in the right place at the time of riding this one, which may well have been to do with the overwhelming effort of the visit itself. Looking back on Dinoconda now I have a massive amount of appreciation for it, but for whatever reason it just didn’t strike me at the time and I’ve only more recently discovered how insane these can truly be.
#3 Dauling Dragon – Happy Valley Wuhan, China
Wuhan was the fifth city in China to receive a Happy Valley park and opened its gates with this massively ambitious duelling wooden coaster from the Gravity Group. While Chinese park chains come up with all these eye-catching, bright ideas, there seems to be very little long term effort towards sustaining them so you’re unlikely to catch these in all their duelling glory. Luckily as a standalone wooden coaster, it’s world class, as we’ve come to expect from the manufacturer. It’s still a goal of mine to one day experience this with both sides operating however – I feel there could be more to give.
#2 Bullet Coaster – Happy Valley Shenzhen, China
Despite being the very first park in the chain, it took Happy Valley Shenzhen until 2012 to get a signature attraction that would stand out on a global stage. Bullet Coaster was the second layout of the newly rejuvenated S&S air launch coaster, following on from the revival in Beijing the previous year. It’s even more effective in the way that it delivers any number of powerful sensations throughout the layout, complementing that life-changing launch.
#1 Skyrush – Hersheypark, USA
Almost a clean sweep for China, but the States have an ace up their sleeve. There aren’t many rollercoasters in the world that can downright terrify a seasoned enthusiast, yet the unique blend of violent forces and minimalist restraints on Skyrush do exactly that. There may have been some sacrifices in comfort along the way and for that very reason we may never see anything exactly like this built again. That just makes it all the more special though and for me it’s an easy top ten in the world.
There has to be more out there though, surely.
Plenty more in the B&M catalogue for starters – I missed out on Firebird during its transition phase from stand-up to floorless coaster, though I think a better chance lies with Leviathan – their first coaster to top 300ft. The wing coaster sold very well in its second year for such a major piece of hardware, with X-Flight being a third unique creation. I’m struggling beyond their contributions however, perhaps lap-bar Eurofighter Iron Shark has an outside chance of making an impact but this field looks too strong to break.
Just as the quality of coasters was really picking up, this 50 years series ended up on a several month hiatus to make way for many, many trip reports. It was great to finally be able to write about some freshoverseasexperiences and it definitely made the best of a brief window of opportunity this year. Now as I sit here in December with the world locking down again, wondering whether I’ll ever ride a coaster built in the 51st consecutive year, let’s pick up where we left off and continue to look at the most exciting decade for the industry so far.
#10 Raptor – Gardaland, Italy
The most recent of B&Ms major ride type innovations is now 10 years old, leaving everyone to wonder what the esteemed manufacturer will bring to the table next. Raptor was the first of these wing coasters and simultaneously introduced the concept of pairing the hardware with near miss scenery elements to give them that extra edge. The use of terrain seems all backwards on this one, leaving the pacing to feel a bit off, but it felt like a solid first attempt at showcasing some potential.
#9 Twister –Gröna Lund, Sweden
It took some witchcraft to fit a wooden coaster with this much runtime into the space available here in Stockholm, but it seems the Gravity Group are always up to the task. Twister isn’t my go-to creation for what their miniature coasters do best, but they’ve never really set a foot wrong as far as I’ve experienced.
#8 Takabisha – Fuji-Q Highland
It was typical Fuji-Q to get something this intense and Gerstlauer were the ones who stepped up to the task, taking their Eurofighter model to new heights. Setting a new record for steepest drop in the world wasn’t enough, they also chucked in a punchy launch section and countless dizzying inversions that made this coaster one of a kind – until someone had to take that status away from it…
#7 Van Helsing’s Factory – Movie Park Germany
Family coasters have always been a strong point for Gerstlauer too, though there’s nothing particularly family friendly about the theme of this indoor masterpiece. With tight turns and special effects cranked up to the max, Van Helsing is one of those well sought after perfect combinations of hardware and theming.
#6 Krake – Heide Park, Germany
More horror theming now, this time with the premise of being swallowed whole by a Krake(n). The concept works really well for this smaller B&M dive coaster and though the subsequent sequence of elements from splash effect to airtime hill are teasingly short, they pack a punch. As does the soundtrack.
#5 Shock – MagicLand, Italy
And punch is what we’re all about from here on out. Seeing this as Maurer’s best coaster to date after 10 years makes me wish for them to get back in the game properly and stop messing around with silly projects. The market for mixed bag launched looping coasters has come a long way since then, but I think there’s still room for these X-cars amongst it, especially if they’re anything like Shock.
#4 Hair Raiser – Ocean Park, Hong Kong
Feels like I haven’t spoken much about Hair Raiser on here, and I should, because it’s awesome. As we enter a more modern era for B&M they tend to see more scrutiny for ‘playing it safe’, but there’s nothing safe about this one. With a location to die for, perched atop a mountain in the sea, Hair Raiser has a very different feel to its layout that really stands out. It was also, for whatever reason, stupidly rough when I rode it, completely uncharacteristic of the manufacturer, and that only added to the experience.
#3 Starry Sky Ripper- Joyland, China
In fact they were just going from strength to strength as far as the Asian market was concerned. Starry Sky Ripper was a ridiculous achievement, not least for containing a 540° twist and vertical loop, on a flying coaster. It’s these sorts of elements that make the ride type B&Ms finest for me just because they bring the concept of intensity to a whole new level.
#2 Extreme Rusher – Happy Valley Beijing, China
You can tell something big was going on in the Chinese coaster scene this year. Aside from a couple of early OCT and Chimelong hits, 2011 appears to be the year that things really kicked off for the country and it’s been manic ever since. I’m forever trying to play catch up with all the world class coasters they keep laying down for us. Extreme Rusher was a landmark return for the S&S air launch after ten long years of silence and it took the type to world beating status in a different way by actually doing something significant and thrilling with the layout outside of ‘we need to set records’.
#1 Wood Coaster – Knight Valley, China
Well what a year. We’re finishing on a personal top ten ride now, as China pushed the limits of another manufacturer to a new extreme, this time wooden warriors GCI. A ride like this shouldn’t be able to exist in such an environment and yet it does, although it’s notably hard to actually catch it operating. Most importantly of all, they didn’t compromise one bit on the layout when making it happen and the end result is mind-blowingly spectacular.
Anything left in the 2011 pool for me?
Cheetah Hunt is the first to jump out, particularly as we’ve unusually not seen anything from Intamin here today. Their next step in the multi-launch revolution has always fascinated me. Speaking of revolutions, this was of course the debut year of hot topic RMC. New Texas Giant paved the way for the manufacturer to take the coasting world by storm and I’d love to see how it rides. Two more Gravity Group coasters excite me greatly of course, I already dropped a reference to Wooden Warrior above and should have ridden Zippin Pippin by now but… you know.
We’re done. These to-do lists are definitely getting shorter, a double-edged sword I feel.
The deeper I dive into this hobby, the more appealing the aspect of collecting certain categories becomes. What with all these ranking lists I throw around, it can feel much more satisfying to provide insight into the most definitive set possible, ones without the various gaps in experience that inevitably come with having not been absolutely everywhere (yet).
Some collections are obviously easier than others, which comes down to factors such as proximity, location and of course sheer numbers. There’s a fundamental sense of achievement in being able to say ‘I’ve done them all’ (gotta catch ’em all), though this is also laced with a more depressing undertone at the same time – there aren’t any more to have fun chasing down. Luckily a good majority of them will remain as moving goalposts, an endless source of entertainment to pursue and maintain in future.
The most recent collection I managed to complete was that of riding all the Gerstlauer Bobsleds to have ever been built. This particular achievement wasn’t planned out at all and was only noticed by chance, a passing thought during a road trip that happened to contain the last of the set. How many of these are left to try? RCDB says just Tiki Waka and you’re done. Well isn’t that something.
We’ve covered a couple ofother lists from German manufacturer Gerstlauer up to now, but what is this particular model all about? It was in fact the first ever rollercoaster they tried their hand at, back in 1998 when one of their nearby potential customers Erlebnispark Tripsdrill were looking to up their coaster game. As a park steeped in local folklore and the various histories of traditional workmanship, the queueline theme ended up looking at the construction and use of various sleds for the transportation of goods. The cars for the ride itself resemble such sleds, or sleighs, which in the modern era are something you’d only really expect to see around Christmas time.
This inaugural design appears to be how the coaster model took on its name, although it has led to some confusion amongst enthusiasts over the years. Bobsleds with a rather different design are of course featured in the Olympic winter games and there just so happens to be a coaster product that was once offered by both Intamin and Mack Rides back as far as the ’80s. Unlike those two, the Gerstlauer runs on traditional steel rails throughout the layout, mainly capitalising on the four-seater single cars to provide a ‘family-thrill’ experience packed with a combination of hairpin turns, twisted drops and airtime hills.
There was a time when I considered the majority of these as nothing more than a slight enhancement on the common Wild Mouse coaster, but having ridden a significant number of custom layouts, this year in particular, I have developed a new found appreciation for what they have to offer. Like most of the coaster world, if anything the designs are just getting better and better, what with over 20 years of refinement behind them now. So let’s take a look.
#14 Gold Rusher – Tatzmania Löffingen
The list begins with clones, of course. Much as I berate them, there’s actually nothing to stop a cloned layout being fantastic in it’s own right, but these particular ones (the 390/4 model) just don’t offer enough of the good stuff I’ve come to expect from the ride type. Gold Rusher in particular is an even more undecorated version of the under-decorated ride that follows it, complete with out-of-place tyre-driven section next to some wood, and so is about as copy and paste as you can get.
#13 Green Hornet: High Speed Chase – Motiongate
And here’s the original. For the fantastic park that is Motiongate, Green Hornet is underwhelmingly themed for a ride based on a movie franchise. Looks aside, there’s something about the more compact layout design that doesn’t sell it well. It comes with lots more twisting and turning which all leans on the repetetive side and gives of an air of certain common fairground coasters. Given that there isn’t actually much separating a lot of these, the single bunny hop just can’t compete with those that have multiple.
#12 Vilda Musen – Gröna Lund
Aside from the wonderful aspect of interaction that’s inherent with a rollercoaster at Gröna Lund I just don’t remember Vilda Musen riding that well. The layout is certainly inventive and unique, but it simply can’t do much with it’s height differential and relies a lot on Wild Mouse style laterals and sharp transitions. Which fits the name perfectly I suppose.
#11 Tiki-Waka – Walibi Belgium
I took the same sort of impression away from Tiki-Waka once I could actually tell what was going on amidst the rainstorm. It looks fantastic for starters, though with so much track located directly above pathway it’s a little meandering and lacks a bit of dynamic range even though it tries to be far more inventive than earlier examples with wacky track shaping and the like.
#10 Cobra – Paultons Park
Straight back into the highly similar designs, Cobra is quite formulaic but rather enjoyable for it. Twisty section. Lateral section. Twisty section. Airtime section. Twisty Section. You know where you stand with it – in a field.
#9 Thor’s Hammer – Djurs Sommerland
Essentially the same ride as the above, just with more accentuated hills and drops (plus a bonus helix) at the end, along with a nicer Norse vibe and the partial setting over water.
#8 G’sengte Sau – Erlebnispark Tripsdrill
And the original is the same as that, except much more nicely themed again, integrated deeper into the landscape, efficiently operated and has a hilarious German question on a sign that appears out of nowhere, mid castle.
#7 Aqua Wind – Lagunasia
Though suspiciously reminiscent of the 390/4, the 380/4 came many years beforehand and has that certain spark that was missing on the later attempts. Again the interaction with theming and setting help things along nicely, but overall it had more vigour and purpose for whatever reason.
#6 Drachenritt – Belantis
Though the almighty RCDB lists it as fully custom, as far as I can tell and recall this is a mirror image of the original (or the 480/4), with some slight tweaks to profiling here and there. The last drop under the bridge there is stretched out for instance, to go with yet more genius interaction with the surroundings. Once again I specifically remember this one riding just that bit harder and faster on the day we happened to experience it and sometimes that’s all you get to judge it from.
#5 Speed Rockets – Jardin d’Acclimatation
I rode all of this top 5 within the space of a few weeks on our most recent roadtrip through Europe and though they contain the most variety amongst everything we’ve seen so far, they’re also the hardest to separate in terms of enjoyment. Aside from having completed the set, the fact that they were all a cut above the rest was the inspiration for spotlighting them in a list like this in the first place. In trying new things with quirky designs, there’s a much greater range of forces to be found and that’s something I’m all about when it comes to ride layouts. Speed Rockets does that perfectly with strange double downs, whippy overbanked turns and a twisted approach to those bunny hills.
#4 Rattenmühle – Familypark
There’s charm by the bucketload to be found here with Rattenmühle, we’d bigged it up amongst ourselves for years (based on name alone) and it didn’t disappoint. The car design alone is worthy of the top half, yet there’s a station full of mischievous rats and a mischievous layout to match it. Even little details like the pre-lift drop and the slightly odd top hat-style element show us again that there’s so much more to be done than just helices.
#3 Gesengte Sau – Wiener Prater
While leaning back on the much more traditional Wild Mouse approach again in terms of fairgroundness and compact-icity, the modern Gesengte Sau is vertically huge in comparison to all the other layouts and finally makes proper use of that extra height differential with some rather cool bigger drops. With more block sections than ever (ones that it just happened to be ploughing straight through when we rode it, to the point of causing the ride system safely shut down on more than one occasion), there’s plenty of ride length to be had to and it’s all rather above average from start to finish. Which means I loved it and Austria has a strong Gerstlauer Bobsled game.
#2 Heiße Fahrt – Wild- und Freizeitpark Klotten/Cochem
I have a confession to make regarding this ride, one that I never mustered the courage to bring up in the recent trip report about it. I lost my hat on it. It feels like such an embarassing rookie error that should never have been made by someone who has travelled the world riding four figures of this type of thing and I am rather traumatised by the mere thought of the whole ordeal. All I can put it down to is how unexpectedly amazing Heiße Fahrt was, a disaster that’s testament to the coaster’s power. In believing I was fully prepared for whatever it could throw at me, the fact that does absolutely everything that’s great about the rides above, but better, caught me off guard. I was so distracted by how much I enjoyed it that I forgot about the simple things like worldly posessions jammed between my knees.
#1 Van Helsing’s Factory – Movie Park Germany
If we’ve learnt anything from this list it’s how well the ride type lends itself to theming and integration with the surroundings. Small punchy layouts with compact manouevers fit perfectly around any feature you want, unlike those big hulking hyper coasters. And so the standout of this particular category took it all a stage further and constructed the ride entirely indoors. Themed to the vampire hunting film franchise, this building is densely packed with scary setpieces and moments of interaction that simply bring the overall experience to another level. With all the visual spectacle going on, it puts the hardware to fantastic use by means of hidden surprises in those violent drops and turns and the end result is a quality themed attraction of the highest order.
Apologies for flogging the same series 4 weeks in a row, I’m actually out riding rollercoasters again on an extended road trip right now and this felt like the easiest rhythm to get into for churning out some scheduled content to tide things over. One massively overdue trip report, coming right up. Four racing cars, three sets of duelling coasters, technical problems and fire galore, this year has it all. It feels like a good way to start the 2010s and I’m sure there will be some surprises in store with how this one plays out.
#10 Fiorano GT Challenge– Ferrrai World (UAE)
The opening of Ferrari World put the UAE on the world coaster map as a potential key player for the first time. It kickstarted some real momentum for the region and with a lot of cash and empty land floating around this became a particularly exciting prospect. Fiorano is an interesting design, a duelling Maurer coaster with several controlled launch sections and predominantly unbanked turns that really try to emulate the sensation of racing cars far more than any other rollercoaster I’ve experienced.
#9 Battlestar Galactica: Human – Universal Studios Singapore
The other big news in Asia this year was the birth of the latest Universal Studios park. It debuted with the world’s tallest duelling coasters and a new styling of product from Vekoma, one that actually looked rather different to the above in the train department. The headline attraction spent half of its life closed and then had them replaced due to ‘technical difficulties’. The Human side is the non-inverting sitdown version and the lesser of the two, though it contributes greatly to the spectacle of course.
#8 Cobra – Conny-Land (Switzerland)
The Pax ‘Loop 520’ is a crazy and unique creation that somehow found it’s way to being Switzerland’s most significant coaster. Not for the first time we’ll see in this list it had a troubled past, with some track replacement taking place. The trains were also upgraded for the 2020 season just in time for my visit and so I think we found it at its absolute best. Good timing resulted in a great ride.
#7 Thirteen – Alton Towers (UK)
An Intamin family coaster with a drop track became Alton Towers’ next claim to world’s first fame, with a satisfying indoor plummet that moves both track and train vertically downward together. The feature is used to great theatrical effect, though the common consensus is that the rest of the hardware doesn’t really live up to this moment and the entire concept was poorly marketed by the park. Personally I’m quite the fan of it regardless.
#6 Intimidator – Carowinds (USA)
The year of the Intimidators was a battle fought and lost by B&M if only for the fact that they didn’t do anything special with their now standard hyper coaster setup. This one is very run of the mill, somewhat sluggish and doesn’t quite live up to the race car theme that it’s all about, yet you still can’t really go wrong with something of this scale and pedigree, if you want to play it safe.
#5 Formula Rossa – Ferrari World (UAE)
No safe options where Intamin were concerned this year however. It was time to smash the record for world’s fastest coaster in ridiculous fashion with an eye-watering 149Mph. Rossa also goes for a different approach to the previous record holders by having a bit of a layout and focusing on pure speed rather than using it for height as well. It’s a little too ‘big Rita’ for my liking, but both the face-ripping nature of the launch and that sequence of hills at the end are pretty special.
This Vekoma SLC kicks ass, and it’s not often you’ll hear that phrase. The ride gets somewhat overlooked in this new wave Vekoma obsession either due to location or a bad rep from those ‘technical difficulties’, but for me the manufacturers evolution started here and I’m yet to find one that is more impressive. It has that unrefined, wilder quality I’m still holding out for in the latest creations.
#3 Intimidator 305 – Kings Dominion (USA)
The year of the Intimidators was a battle fought and won by Intamin if only for the fact they did do something special with their giga coaster setup. The ride immediately reached legendary status by being ‘too intense’ and having to have some track reprofiled to compensate (something in the water this year clearly) and most people either love or hate this thing for that insane first drop and turn. I’m firmly in the ‘meh?’ camp however, it’s not what I wanted it to be (an Intamin Mega-Lite, but insanely huge), but 305 has strengths of its own, mainly in those overly snappy transitions.
#2 Joris en der Draak – Efteling (Netherlands)
Meanwhile GCI were playing to their strengths again with a small, fast paced woodie filled with aggression, except this time there’s two of them, interacting all the way. Couple this above average ride experience with some Efteling magic, through killer soundtracks, a genius narrative and an amazing dragon animatronic and you’ve got something far more special than some big try-hard hunks of steel.
#1 Revenge of the Mummy – Universal Studios Singapore
And being understated is what shall inevitably prevail this year. The best dark ride rollercoaster in existence brings the two things I love most about parks together in spectacular fashion and that’s worth at least 10x giga coasters or record breakers to me.
What else did the world have to offer this year?
I’m not sure what Vekoma were going for with the bizarre Big Air, but it’s definitely a must ride. The original Sky Rocket from Premier looks far more fascinating than the prolific version II it went on to spawn.
Worryingly enough that’s it, I’m done. Unless there’s something I’ve overlooked this list could well be already set in stone. It’s a first for the series, will it be the last?
A nice varied mix this year with five different manufacturers sharing the top 5. Is the era of domination coming to a close, or is this just a blip in the system? Or have I just not ridden enough yet. All I know is there’s some big new entries coming up that paved the way for some of absolute favourites, so it was an exciting time for sure.
#10 Tranan – Skara Sommarland (Sweden)
A one of a kind wacky installation from S&S and a different take on the wing coaster design, with single file seating that can freely rock back and forth. It’s nice to see experimentation keeping things fresh and interesting within the industry.
#9 Fluch von Novgorod – Hansa Park (Germany)
Dollywood appears to have set the trend for housing those vertical lift hills and doing something special with Gerstlauer hardware. On paper I should really love this one as well, but I just can’t get past the uninspired layout that rides poorly. I’d rather just experience the dark ride sections individually and be done with it.
#8 Mumbo Jumbo – Flamingoland (UK)
S&S had also been concocting other crazy ideas last year with this El Loco design debuting at Indiana Beach. Mumbo Jumbo was the first version to hit Europe and features a fascinating sequence of elements such as that outerbanked turn and downhill inversion that set it apart from pretty much everything else in the field. The only things holding it back are the clunky shoulder restraints which have a particularly awkward design.
#7 Anubis: The Ride – Plopsaland de Panne (Belgium)
Probably one of the most major coasters I failed to take even a single picture of. There’s something about Belgium (or our particularly poor planning) that always sucks all the time out of the day leaving little luxury for photo laps. Update: I’ve since been back and managed just one snap, after being distracted again by something far more impressive. Says it all really. Anubis was the follow up to last years Lynet, the Gerstlauer launch coaster and marks the second and last of the model to have been made, with the LSM technology instead transitioning over to their Eurofighters as seen above.
#6 Saw: The Ride – Thorpe Park (UK)
Busy year for Gerstlauer. The UK also ended up with a Eurofighter with indoor sections and theming and it’s the first real coaster I ended up following the construction of, having just started to get into this hobby properly (first time round). While the presentation is in no way a match for the direct competition this year, I find Saw to have a much more entertaining layout, the brutality of which is rather fitting for the theme.
#5 iSpeed – Mirabilandia (Italy)
I opted not to fill this list with another dose of Mega-Lites as we’ve probably seen enough of them already. It was a busy year for Intamin, though mostly through the sale of cloned layouts across the world. iSpeed was the standout box fresh design and European successor to Maverick with that LSM launch. It also opted for the large top hat element, like the hydraulic accelerators of old, perhaps in an attempt to be the best of both worlds, though it wasn’t as good as I would have hoped.
#4 Diving Coaster – Happy Valley Shanghai
Once again I’ve only done one of the B&Ms so far and it’s another Chinese monster dive machine clone, but Sheikra this time. It’s a mighty impressive ride, does what it says on the tin. The less said about the park the better, though it did all open for the first time this year with a particularly significant lineup.
#3 El Toro – Freizeitpark Plohn
A humble GCI affair in Eastern Germany manages to outgun the big players this year, really showing off the strengths of the wooden coasters from this manufacturer with a high energy series of twists, turns and hills out of a minimal height differential. The less said about the park the better.
#2 blue fire Megacoaster – Europa Park (Germany)
Big moment for me, though I wouldn’t know it yet. Mack Rides have stepped up after a prolonged absence from these lists and it’s time for them to start properly competing with the thrill market. The development of their own LSM launch coaster coupled with what I still consider to be the best trains in the business was just the first step towards true greatness. Blue Fire is a real showcase piece, with a bit of everything from dark ride sections to inversions, an onboard soundtrack and even heart rate monitors.
#1 Wooden Coaster – Fireball – Happy Valley Shanghai
Finally. I’ve been honourable mentioning the Gravity Group for several years in a row now, having never had the fortune of getting on one of their US installations yet. They hit the Asian market for the first time this year in a big way, with China’s first ever wooden coaster and this has gone on to do amazing things for the hobby, at least in my particular case. Fireball is part traditional out-and-back airtime machine and part out-of-control insanity machine, something that this manufacturer does better than anyone else. And that’s all I’ve ever wanted.
Have we got any more excitement to be uncovered from 2009? Magic Mountain got their Terminator themed GCI this year, sadly it was down during my visit. They also made Prowler elsewhere in the States, which sounds good for name alone. The missing B&M list is basically just Diamondback, continuing the annual hyper tradition. Though they also built one other coaster this year I’ve already experienced the layout and to be fair it would easily be top three. Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit still intrigues me, it looks rather different to anything else Maurer put out.
Now we can end on some downers, two spites: The future is uncertain for Senzafiato. I would have ridden this one had they not closed indefinitely the year we were in Italy. I also tried my hardest to ride Stingray, visiting the area on multiple occasions with specifically allocated days to spare. It never opened for any number of reasons and I so badly wanted that unique creation.
Ah well, 2010s next, Should be good! Click here to continue the timeline.
