Any rollercoaster buffs here

[roadman65]

I was just wondering if they are any roller coaster buffs here who love to ride roller coasters?  In my younger days, and when theme parks had a daily admission of less than $20, I used to ride them a lot.  In fact that is when the loopers became quite famous as the old straight coasters lost their glamour.

Even when Busch Gardens, Tampa introduced its Python Coaster in the late 1970's, it was big thrill because many coasters did not loop upside down.  Then years later when the newer Kumba and the Montu inverted coasters were opened, what used to have long lines diminished so much that you could ride the original Python non stop.  As the old coaster had two loops and very short in riding time, the newer ones were built taller, longer, and have seven turns with loops not to mention faster.

Since my day on the coasters they have added new thrills such as higher, faster, and even straight vertical drops.  Many are in Sandusky, OH at the famous Cedar Point Amusement Park, and then Six Flags seem to be adding many as well as Parramount Parks.  All trying to build the best coaster.

Back in the day I was in theme parks, it was the Kumba in Tampa, the Drachen Fire in Busch Gardens Virginia, The Montu Tampa, the 7 loop coaster in Sea World Orlando, and the ones at Hersheypark in the 1990's such as the Sidewinder, Grizzly, and even the Comet.  Then I had to say I enjoyed the Vortex and Beast at Kings Island and a short lived one in Nashville called Chaos with 3D glasses to give special effects to the indoor coaster at the defunct Opryland.  Then as far as fast turns its the Space Mountain (preferably the Omega Track) in Disney World.

Any other coaster nuts here?

[Zeffy]

I've ridden rollercoasters since I was 7 years old. I love them! My current favorites are Nitro and King Da Ka at Six Flags in Jackson, NJ, many (my memory isn't helping me here) at Universal Studios / Disney World in Orlando, FL, and Steel Force, Hydra, and Talon at Dorney Park in PA.

Unfortunately, I was supposed to go to Hershey Park as part of a class trip in 8th grade, but the day before, I managed to twist my ankle in gym class to the point where I couldn't walk on it without crutches. The school gave me 67% of my money back, but they offered to 'let me go in a wheelchair'. What the fuck? What's the point of that?

I try to go to an amusement park at least once a year, usually in the late months of Summer. I'll ride almost any coaster, with preference to loops and large vertical drops. I generally dislike wooden roller coasters, because it gives me a straight headache from all the bouncing around.

[jeffandnicole]

I enjoy coasters...did a few trips specifically to stop at a park.

I was on Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point just before Kingda Ka opened at Great Adventure.  I've been on that one as well, so I have been on the tallest & fastest roller coasters at the time twice.

I also was on the coaster that was on top of the Stratopshere Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas.  The actual ride was very bland.  It was the thrill of being 1,000 high that made the ride worthwhile.

There are various others I've been on; many of them enjoyable.  One of my favorites though is the Great White wooden roller coaster at Morey's Piers in Wildwood, NJ.  The coaster itself is a regular, fairly tame coaster.  If you get the chance though, go on it when the wind is blowing and there's a light drizzle/rain.  The wet sand hitting you in the face at 50 mph is a whole nother level of an experience you aren't going to get at a normal amusement park!

Any more though, I can't really do roller coasters.  I don't get motion sickness - it's the smells of the oils and greases that do me in (same thing at a Nascar track, and I'm just sitting there!).  The last coaster I was on was The Big Apple coaster at the NYNY casino in Vegas.  That one had a very rough ride...not fun!

[1995hoo]

I used to enjoy riding roller coasters, but I think those days are largely in the past for me now with limited exceptions. Part of the reason is we just don't go to amusement parks very often. We have Washington Capitals season tickets and every year they have a "Meet the Team" party where they rent out the Six Flags park in Maryland for the season ticket holders (the water park is not part of the event) and you can ride some of the coasters. I was on the Batwing (a suspended coaster in which you hang from a safety harness) next to Sergei Fedorov a few years back when his iPhone (at the time a newly released product that was quite expensive) flew out of his pocket. D'oh. Nowadays about the only one of the coasters I ride anymore at that event is "The Wild One," an old-fashioned wooden coaster. I rode their stand-up coaster at the spring 2013 event and I just no longer enjoyed it. Felt like too much of a physical pounding and I felt dizzy afterwards. Getting older has its drawbacks! If I were visiting my relatives in Brooklyn I'd happily ride the Cyclone at Coney Island. But I think I'm at the point in life where I won't be riding the looping coasters anymore. At the first Caps event at Six Flags I managed to get my wife on the Joker's Jinx, a launched coaster with a bunch of loops and sharp turns. She was extremely displeased with me as soon as the ride started!

We did visit Disney World in June 2011 and I rode both Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I enjoyed both of those, but Big Thunder in particular felt very sedate compared to most roller coasters I've ridden.

When I was a kid we used to go to Kings Dominion in Virginia every year, but I have not been there since 1992 (due primarily to traffic hassles and disliking some changes in the atmosphere due to the clientele seemingly adopting coarser behavior). I loved the Grizzly, the Rebel Yell, and the Scooby-Doo coaster. Only got to ride the Anaconda (with the underwater tunnel) one time. One thing I used to like to do on coasters like that one, with its very high lift hill, would be to sit in the SECOND seat and then, on the way up the hill, start bemoaning how the greasy food I'd eaten (not true) was starting to upset my stomach, just to freak out the people in front of me.

I thought the Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens was overrated when I visited there in 1990, though I was surprised to learn it's apparently still the only coaster with interlocking loops even now.

[signalman]

I love roller coasters..both wooden and metal.  I have been to many amusement parks over the years, primarily to ride roller coasters.  It's been a few years since I've gone to one, hoping to break the long dry spell this summer.

I've been to Six Flags Great Adventure and Kings Dominion numerous times.  I've only been to Cedar Point once, although I'd love to get back there this summer if time allows.  Last time I was there was in 1996.

When I was a kid we used to go to Kings Dominion in Virginia every year, but I have not been there since 1992 (due primarily to traffic hassles and disliking some changes in the atmosphere due to the clientele seemingly adopting coarser behavior). I loved the Grizzly, the Rebel Yell, and the Scooby-Doo coaster. Only got to ride the Anaconda (with the underwater tunnel) one time. One thing I used to like to do on coasters like that one, with its very high lift hill, would be to sit in the SECOND seat and then, on the way up the hill, start bemoaning how the greasy food I'd eaten (not true) was starting to upset my stomach, just to freak out the people in front of me.

I remember one trip to Kings Dominion where my dad and I rode Rebel Yell 14 times in one day.  We rode the other roller coasters in the park as well, but kept going back to Rebel Yell for another ride.  I liked your idea about sitting in the second row and complaining about an upset stomach, hoo.  I had never thought to do something like that before, but I like the idea and could definitely see me doing something like that.

[english si]

I like wooden coasters, as they have character. Too many steel ones are just speed you smoothly (though Colossus at Thorpe Park has a really dire ride quality - but that actually just takes away, rather than adds character) through gimmicky features - some good and some bad.

When I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, I went on Revolution about 6 or 7 times. We went round the park, did most of the rides, including some big rides (but half the roller coasters had hour+ queues, so we skipped many of them). Near the end of the day, my brother and I were asked by our tired parents who had given up what we wanted to do for the last 90 minutes: we did one 40-minute queue and roller coaster, then decided that we'd go back to Revolution, as we felt it was the most fun roller coaster in the park that we had done that day, and a bonus that it had next-to-no-queue. We rode it 5 or 6 times in 20 minutes, coming out the exit and re-joining the queue, which was mostly a wait for the train to enter the station (IIRC, we had to wait for the next train before getting in one time, and even then I think it was as we were aiming for the front, though a couple of times we did single rider it to skip the queue).

Saw the ride at Thorpe Park is the last coaster I went on (4 years ago), and while it was fun, the beyond-vertical drop was a massive gimmick. Far more fun were the inside features. The vertical lift hill was quite cool, mostly as it felt strange and you noticed it, unlike the fact that the drop was beyond vertical (it was just too quick).

Much better than Colossus, which - despite 10 inversions, was dull as ditchwater when it opened. OK, I quite liked the quadruple corkscrew, mostly as it was smooth and quite a nice sensation of smoothly spinning around (and it went through more slowly than recently, meaning that I could shout "I think I'm going to be sick" at the people on the path underneath and see them scurry away). But it's aim was 10 inversions, and nothing else.

The steepest roller coaster in Europe and it's North American twin (1 degree less steep as older and the makers wanted the record with each of three iterations), Steel Dawg in Indiana, look fun, despite basically gimmick after gimmick squashed (cleverly) into a small space. A decent exception to the more gimmicks = less fun rule that I've just made up in this sentence.

[SteveG1988]

I am a bit of a coaster buff....who has never been on a looping coaster, this summer I plan to fix that.

[Mr. Matté]

Yes, but not as much as I did when I was younger. The summer trips to amusement parks meant that I got to combine the coastergeeking with roadgeeking although less so of the latter when it was just a 15-minute trip down CR 571 to Great Adventure for me.

[thenetwork]

When you live in Ohio, you are almost obligated to love & ride roller coasters.  I grew up on Cedar Point and Kings Island and, when it was still around, Geauga Lake in Aurora and Idora Park in Youngstown.  I was lucky enough to catch Kennywood a few times before I moved west.

Over the years, the more "spinny" the rides are, the more I turn green.  Word of advice:  If you don't like spinning rides, don't even think of waiting in line to find out what The Exterminator ride is at Kennywood.  I went on it blindly with friends -- all of us unaware of what this ride was -- (it is an inside "wild mouse" roller coaster ride).  The first part of the ride was okay, as the car remained straight, but then the car would start spinning on it's own and would not stop until the end.

[Alps]

We had a road enthusiast coaster outing last year - four of us at Cedar Point. I'm considering a redo, but only with people who are serious about RIDING ALL COASTERS AT ALL TIMES and none of that silly walking or taking-breaks stuff.

[Brandon]

We had a road enthusiast coaster outing last year - four of us at Cedar Point. I'm considering a redo, but only with people who are serious about RIDING ALL COASTERS AT ALL TIMES and none of that silly walking or taking-breaks stuff.

Does that include going back and taking Gemini several times in a row (as I've done on more than one occasion)?

[SteveG1988]

We had a road enthusiast coaster outing last year - four of us at Cedar Point. I'm considering a redo, but only with people who are serious about RIDING ALL COASTERS AT ALL TIMES and none of that silly walking or taking-breaks stuff.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/events/

They have events and tours, supposedly you can join em at one park if you cannot do the whole outing

[agentsteel53]

RIDING ALL COASTERS AT ALL TIMES

I would like to see how you achieve this.  some kind of secret pass that lets you bypass every line?

[The Great Zo]

We had a road enthusiast coaster outing last year - four of us at Cedar Point. I'm considering a redo, but only with people who are serious about RIDING ALL COASTERS AT ALL TIMES and none of that silly walking or taking-breaks stuff.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/events/

They have events and tours, supposedly you can join em at one park if you cannot do the whole outing

I did one of their tours last summer and will be going again this year. Can't think of a better way to see a lot of parks in a short period of time, and with a group of people who are there for the same reason and love it.

They sometimes open up days on the tours for bigger events with open invites for bigger crowds, though not always.

Allow me to throw out a mention of Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO -- a truly outstanding park that few people are aware of. Cedar Point's hard to argue with, though. 

[hotdogPi]

RIDING ALL COASTERS AT ALL TIMES

I would like to see how you achieve this.  some kind of secret pass that lets you bypass every line?

in addition to cloning yourself many times.

[Alps]

RIDING ALL COASTERS AT ALL TIMES

I would like to see how you achieve this.  some kind of secret pass that lets you bypass every line?

a) not terribly secret
b) alanland

[NE2]

RIDING ALL COASTERS AT ALL TIMES

I would like to see how you achieve this.  some kind of secret pass that lets you bypass every line?

It's called being in a wheelchair.

[hbelkins]

There was an MTR participant from years ago named John Cline II who came to a couple of the meets back then. I think he lived in the Huntington, WV area, and he was a huge coaster fan. He's one of those "I wonder whatever happened to" folks (not to be confused with the late Stanley Cline, who called himself "Roamer" on MTR).

Also, since I passed through there Monday, Bruce Harper. "Bruce in Blacksburg." I had a week-long class at Virginia Tech back in 2003, and had lunch with him and Rush Wickes while I was in town.

[SteveG1988]

At six flags you can pay a bit extra for a flash pass, that if you pay enough for it up front...you get front of line privlages no matter what