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Do you prefer steel roller coasters or wooden roller coasters?

Do you prefer steel roller coasters or wooden roller coasters?


  • Total voters
    28

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. I know this seems like a very simplistic debate, but I’m surprised we seemingly haven’t got a topic for it, and I thought it might be a fun one to discuss. So my basic question to you is; do you prefer steel roller coasters or wooden roller coasters?

Personally, I prefer steel roller coasters, although I’ll admit that I have really warmed to wooden roller coasters in recent years.

Personally, I like steel roller coasters more because even though wooden roller coasters have become more versatile in recent years with regards to the type of ride experience they can provide, I feel like steel roller coasters can offer a wider range of elements than wooden roller coasters, and they can also be stretched further in terms of thrill; as much as I’ve ridden some really great, thrilling wooden roller coasters, I often find that steel roller coasters are able to provide that little bit more in the way of thrill and fun factor without becoming very rough as a biproduct. That leads onto my second point; steel roller coasters also often tend to be more smooth, comfortable and rerideable than wooden roller coasters, on the whole. I personally value comfort and rerideability hugely in a ride, and while I have ridden some very comfortable and rerideable wooden roller coasters (newer rides like Wicker Man come to mind for me), steel roller coasters generally tend to provide smoother and more comfortable ride experiences, which I personally prefer.

I’m not saying that I don’t like wooden roller coasters by any means, though, because I do very much! I have two wooden roller coasters in my top 5, and as someone who values fun factor and rerideability over out and out intensity, some wooden coasters do really provide this to a strong extent! However, once you leave my top 5, my 3rd favourite wooden roller coaster is all the way down at #16 (for reference, I’ve ridden 74 roller coasters), and the next one down after that is at #33, so my preferences do generally tend towards steel thus far (although that might not be helped by the fact that my steel coaster count vastly, vastly outweighs my wooden coaster count).

So personally, I prefer steel, but to be honest, I think both steel coasters and wooden coasters are great in their own way, and have their own individual merits!

But do you personally prefer steel coasters or wooden coasters?
 
It totally depends.

My #1 is a hybrid (Steel Vengeance) and my #2 is steel (Maverick). I enjoy straightforward wooden coasters, too.

Undecided.
 
Hybrids tbh.
I guess in a sense, hybrids almost combine the best of both worlds in many ways!

Although I guess that a steel hybrid will never have quite that raw feel of a traditional wooden coaster, in many ways... that really makes traditional woodies stand out.
 
Wood because of the wider range of variability - weather, how well it's greased or warmed up etc.
 
It all depends on the coaster for me. My top three coasters are Steel Vengeance, El Toro and Maverick. A hybrid coaster, a wooden coaster and a steel coaster. So I would not say I have a favoutire!
 
It's hard for me to say because I've not had the opportunity to go to enough theme parks to experience all the different kinds of each but from what I have, I would say steel. Purely because I think like others have said there's just more you can do with them, and personally I love inverted coasters.
 
Steel for me. However I do like Wooden coasters when they're done well. Not a huge fan of the older ones like most enthusiasts are. I get the Nostalgia bit but if a coaster is rough as old boots I don't care how much history it has. It's simply not fun.
 
Asking this in the UK will give a predictable result when we are surrounded by decent steel and, at best, mediocre wood. Most people here will have no idea what a woodie can really be.

Wood FTW.
 
A few years ago I would have definitely said wooden coasters were better, now I think its a closer call (maybe I am getting too old for bumpy rides!!)

To be fair I haven't visited that many theme parks (and non abroad).

In terms of wooden coasters I have ridden in my time... I have done 6 at Blackpool plus Wickerman and Rollercoaster at Great Yarmouth.

I think Wickerman is the most fun and enjoyable coaster at towers, and I make no secret of my love of the sadly departed Wild Mouse at Blackpool. But Nash is now unbearably rough and even Big Dipper can be painful on a wheel seat.

Overall I think Wood still has the potential to offer the most fun ride.
 
I do not have a preference really, I just prefer the really big ones.

(this is not innuendo bingo)

I think going to the states somewhat spoilt me to be honest.
 
Both offer differ things, so I do not see it as a choice. Some steel coasters I would rate higher than wooden coasters, and some wooden coasters I would rate higher than steel coasters.

Both offer something unique and special, and I think a park benefits when it has a mixture of both.
 
It really depends. My all time top coasters are split steel, wooden, wooden, steel/hybrid (depends who you ask) and steel. It's about the actual coaster itself really. Bottom 5 for me are 2 wooden and 3 steel coasters as well.
 
Steel for me. However I do like Wooden coasters when they're done well. Not a huge fan of the older ones like most enthusiasts are. I get the Nostalgia bit but if a coaster is rough as old boots I don't care how much history it has. It's simply not fun.
To be honest, I think you’ve basically summed up my stance on the subject in far fewer words than I did!

I like wooden coasters when they’re smooth(ish) and rerideable, like many of the more modern woodies are, but I’ll admit that I’m not personally huge on older wooden coasters, even though I really appreciate them from a nostalgia/history standpoint.

On the whole, I’m definitely more of a steel person, personally.
 
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