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Coasters that you like or dislike despite their layout

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. When reviewing a coaster and determining how much you like it, the layout itself and its objective strength is mostly one of the most major considerations. But I’d be intrigued to know; has there ever been a time where you’ve ridden a ride that has a somewhat weak layout on paper, but you still loved the ride experience despite the weaknesses of the layout itself? Or have you ridden a ride with a really strong layout on paper that does little for you when you actually get on it?


In terms of my nominations for this thread, both of mine actually come from Alton Towers.


A coaster that I like despite not necessarily having the greatest of layouts is Wicker Man. On paper, the ride isn’t overly long, and while there’s sections that still look great on paper like the s-bend drop, some sections like the unbanked u-turn and the unbanked section towards the end don’t look like they would ride particularly well. There also doesn’t look to be a huge amount of potential airtime moments. But when I actually ride Wicker Man, none of this means anything to me. I still love it; the pacing is phenomenal, there’s buckets of airtime and fun transitions, it feels longer than you’d expect, and even the sections that don’t look like they would ride so well on paper are still great fun, in my opinion!


A coaster that I’m not a fan of in spite of its strong layout is The Smiler. On paper, I’m a huge fan of Smiler’s layout; it’s an engineering marvel and a work of absolute twisted genius, in my opinion. For a coaster with 14 inversions, I think it feels surprisingly varied, with many different elements and lots of different sensations on offer; there’s even a few great pockets of airtime! But when I actually ride it, I almost think it’s a touch too intense; a bit too much to handle, in a way. The roughness also hugely takes away from it for me.


But are there any rides that you like or dislike despite their layout?
 
Flight of the Pterosaur, Paultons. Layout is a bit short and nothing special but theming is incredible for a UK park. Other way round I would say TWD, Thorpe which I loved as X but the horror theming defeats the point of it as a family coaster.
 
The Smiler is a ride I hate despite the fact I do really like the layout. I can't stand the theme, the theming, that cattlepen queue, and the trains stop it from being something I can at least like.

Across X-Sector though I love Oblivion despite it's very basic layout, the engineering feat of the coaster is something that's difficult not to appreciate.

For some more I like, Speed of Sound at Walibi Holland is a basic boomerang but the soundtrack and the trains make it a pretty damn good experience! What was Kanonen at Liseberg was a decent cred on its own despite the weird layout. Big One is a bizarre example as I like the coaster's layout from an aesthetic point of view, but the rideability is crap.

On the other end of the spectrum, I wanted to like Thundercoaster at Tusenfyrd which has a good layout, but I found it too rough to properly enjoy.
 
Another vote for Speed of Sound at Walibi Holland. Proof you can polish a turd.

On the the other end of the scale I have Anubis at Plopsaland De Panne. It looks pretty fun from POVs and the layout doesn’t appear too bad at a glance, but my god it’s mediocre. After the rolling launch and first hill it’s thoroughly forgettable. Shame really as I’d been looking forward to riding it for years, but it feels so “meh” when you’re on it.

Also, off the shelf I know, but pretty much any stock Vekoma SLC. I’ve alway felt the standard layout is pretty good on paper, but they generally ride so poorly it’s hard to enjoy (at least, the ones I’ve done to date).
 
The Smiler for me as well. As a concept I love both the layout and theme. However neither were executed well. The track has noticable jaring points where track pieces were forced into alignment. Both the concrete pit and station are dire.

I guess on the flip side I could say Black Mamba (Phantasialand). Very by the numbers layout but the setting it's in is stunning.
 
Big Thunder Mountain has the brilliant first drop and final drop and what feels like a million hours of lift hills in between.
 
The Swarm, although it hasn’t the longest layout, it looks better than it actually is. Definitely one of the most underwhelming coasters that I thought was going to be incredible.

The only part I highly rate is that turn around that looks like a vertical loop but slanted. Not sure of the technical term for it?
 
Tennessee Tornado. I was incredibly apprehensive with it being one of Arrow's last coasters prior to riding, yet it remains one of their best. In fact, the layout is criminally short.
 
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