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Coasters that you want to like, but don't

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. In all the years I've been riding roller coasters and visiting theme parks, I've ridden many different rides, and there have been many rides that I've hotly anticipated riding. In some cases, like with my current top 2 coasters Mako and Icon, these hotly anticipated rides blew me away and more than met my expectations. However, in other cases, I've been a bit disappointed. So before I ramble on for too long, my question to you is; has there ever been a coaster that you really wanted to like, but you just couldn't for some reason or another?


As for my answer to this question; the first coaster that springs to mind is Olympia Looping (or Munich Looping, as it was called when I rode it at Winter Wonderland). Now, ever since this coaster had first appeared in the UK back in 2016, I wanted to ride it badly. I'd heard many very superlative-filled reviews, and thought that it looked like a fantastic coaster that I'd really enjoy. When I finally got the chance to ride it in January 2020, I had visions in my head of it being firmly in my top 10, maybe even my top 5 or top 3. However, when I got off, I must admit I was profoundly underwhelmed by it. Now don't get me wrong; for a 30 year old travelling coaster, it's an absolute masterpiece of engineering, it still runs quite smoothly and I'm honoured to have ridden it, and part of my disappointment was probably down to my expectations as opposed to the coaster. Despite this, I wanted to enjoy it far more than I did. I admit that part of the reason I didn't really enjoy it was because I found it too intense for me; the coaster certainly lived up to its billed intensity, but I think I found it a bit too much to handle, personally, as I felt quite nauseous getting off both times I did it. However, the thing that let the ride down most for me was the harnesses. As well as the lap bar, Olympia Looping has hard plastic bars that rest on your shoulders during the ride. I knew this before riding, but I must admit that I didn't expect them to inhibit my enjoyment to quite the extent that they did. As the ride was going round, they got tighter and tighter, so by the end of the ride, they were very painful and I almost felt like I was being crushed by them.


Despite my disappointment after the first ride, I went back for a second ride later on in the hope that I would enjoy it more. I wanted to give the ride another chance, because you often read trip reports where people are underwhelmed by a coaster in the day and blown away by it at night, so I was hoping for Olympia to be one of these cases. As I was boarding, all of the conditions were there for an optimal ride experience; darkness, a back row ride (we rode in the middle earlier), restraints that didn't feel too tight. I thought this was going to be the ride where I would genuinely fall in love with Olympia Looping, or at least enjoy it a little more. However, I somehow think I liked it even less at night than I did in the day, because the shoulder harnesses somehow crushed me even more than they had during the day, to the point where my shoulders were in real pain.


I want to like Olympia Looping, I really do. It's got a good layout, and for a 30 year old travelling coaster, it's an absolutely mind-blowing machine! However, when I think about the nausea and the painful shoulder harnesses, I'm just not sure it's the sort of coaster I enjoy, and I'm afraid I just can't rank it very highly.


Have you ever had a similar story?
 
Interesting topic!

The one that comes to mind for me is The Swarm. I’ve sat on both sides front and back and never felt a thing. People go on about how intense it is and I really don’t know what I’m missing! Love the theme though and the station especially, just find it boring. Reminds me of Air to be honest.
 
The Voyage is probably the main one for me. Everyone bangs on about it being one of the best woodies on the planet having won awards etc. Rode it expecting it to be world class woodie material... it just wasn't and I was gutted about that.
 
Interesting topic!

The one that comes to mind for me is The Swarm. I’ve sat on both sides front and back and never felt a thing. People go on about how intense it is and I really don’t know what I’m missing! Love the theme though and the station especially, just find it boring. Reminds me of Air to be honest.
Now I absolutely love The Swarm, but I wouldn't say it's massively intense. If you like a ridiculously intense, relentless g-force machine, then The Swarm perhaps isn't the coaster for you. However, the key thing it does for me is that every time I've ridden it, it's struck a perfect balance in that I find it intense enough to give me a good thrill, but not intense enough to provide nausea or make me feel funny. For me, it's just so smooth, really rerideable and I just genuinely find it such an immensely fun coaster as opposed to a ridiculously intense one.

As for the comparison with Galactica, I'd say that I personally find The Swarm a bit more intense than Galactica, but I'd say it's similar in being a very fun, rerideable coaster. Then again, I also really like Galactica; I think I just like fun, rerideable coasters as opposed to massively intense ones!
The Voyage is probably the main one for me. Everyone bangs on about it being one of the best woodies on the planet having won awards etc. Rode it expecting it to be world class woodie material... it just wasn't and I was gutted about that.
It's a great shame to hear this, I must admit. What was it that let it down for you, out of interest?
 
Black Mamba

Love the setting, great theme work but the coaster simply isn't interesting. Stick it on a flat piece of land and it would probably be the worst invert B&M have built.
 
Interesting you mention Olympia Looping, as I found it didn't live up to the hype either.
... However, that's not to say I don't enjoy it, it's still a superb example of Anton's finest work.

I'd say there is a big difference between actively disliking a ride, and just not seeing why others rave about it. I've never understood why most enthusiasts rave about wood so much, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good woody.

So to me, I assume this means a ride that should tick all my boxes, but somehow ended up near the bottom of my rankings (beaten only by the truely dire.
The Smiler, Kanonen, Colossus, Baco, about half of Canada's Wonderland...
All big, fast, intense, multi-inverting steel beasts. All headbangers.

So for me it's rides that are otherwise great, but ruined by bad engineering.
 
I still don't get why many enthusiasts dislike the Smiler so much. Is it the accident or is there something else I have missed?
 
It's the beating to the head it gives me. I don't mind a rough ride, (Ultimate fanclub!) but not when I have a rubber sledgehammer right next to each temple.
 
I still don't get why many enthusiasts dislike the Smiler so much. Is it the accident or is there something else I have missed?
I don't dislike The Smiler but it is on this list for me. The ride was rushed to get it open on time and was left with noticable lasting problems.

The jarring moments that often get mentioned are an example of this. The foundations didn't line up and they decided to force the track into position, rather than redo the foundation.
Anouther example is the cheapness of the theme. I said when we first saw the plans that I hated the amount of plain concert they were using and that it wasn't justified by the theme, and I still stand by that.

However on the subject of the theme it is a really interesting concept! Tieing it with The Sancturay scare maze was also a great idea. With better development the ride could have been an Alton classic. For a 14 loop coaster it even has a lot of variety in the layout, unlike what I thought of Black Mamba.
 
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I still don't get why many enthusiasts dislike the Smiler so much. Is it the accident or is there something else I have missed?

@stigzy said this in another thread on why he hated the ride and I agree with him on it.

Wait... are we actually supposed to like the smiler? I always thought it was #awful

If you haven't got a headache from the vile theme and that horrific blaring soundtrack competing with decibels with the noise of the ride from the queueline; you're sure to get one on the ride itself. I find it rough in the context of the ride as a whole, not the smooth mechanics of the ride.

I want to like Thundercoaster at Tusenfyrd as I think it has a great layout but it is unfortunately too rough for me.
 
Hyperion. I just didn't "get" it at all and it is absolutely raved about in certain circles.

The queue line / station feels industrial and doesn't inspire me anymore than Saw does. The coaster itself offers little after the first drop, much like The Big One (albeit much smoother!) no real air time or anything in my opinion.

Goggles on the front row pointless and stupid. Gimmick.

I was in a group with three others. Three of us thought it was bang average, the fourth acted like it was the second coming. I wish I had felt that way.
 
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Galactica. I went on it in 2002 and was wowed by the technology but after a while the novelty wore off. I don’t understand how people queue more than 15 minutes for it.

The best part of the ride is the lift hill view of Nemesis. I get it’s not meant to be intense but I even find RMT more ‘fun’ to ride.
 
Galactica. I went on it in 2002 and was wowed by the technology but after a while the novelty wore off. I don’t understand how people queue more than 15 minutes for it.

The best part of the ride is the lift hill view of Nemesis. I get it’s not meant to be intense but I even find RMT more ‘fun’ to ride.
I think I would have liked Air/Galactica more if they had themed the tunnel, currently "the tunnel has all the atmosphere of a cross between a public convenience and an underground car park". (Not many designers will say that about their own work but John Wardley did!)
 
Icon is definitely in this category for me. It commits the cardinal sin: it's very very boring. Looks boring, not really any forces and nothing to really get me back on. I wanted BPB to do well but they didn't, despite how many UK fans think it's the world's greatest. Dipper it sits next to shows it up and it's nearly 100 years old.

The only other one is another BPB ride: The Big One. Again it's just a drop then a wait to get off, massive waste of steel really.
 
Hyperion. I just didn't "get" it at all and it is absolutely raved about in certain circles.

The queue line / station feels industrial and doesn't inspire me anymore than Saw does. The coaster itself offers little after the first drop, much like The Big One (albeit much smoother!) no real air time or anything in my opinion.

Goggles on the front row pointless and stupid. Gimmick.

I was in a group with three others. Three of us thought it was bang average, the fourth acted like it was the second coming. I wish I had felt that way.
Had a totally different experience on Hyperion. Had an incredible amount of ejector airtime and would take it over Mako
 
On the one hill, sure; but it's hardly the jarring air time the damn thing should have had.

Ah who am I kidding? It should have been the Vekoma model to start with. Hyperion. What a waste.
 
On the one hill, sure; but it's hardly the jarring air time the damn thing should have had.

Ah who am I kidding? It should have been the Vekoma model to start with. Hyperion. What a waste.
True I think Verkoma would have done an even better job. I agree the theming is very generic but better than Galactica's
 
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