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Are you a fan of flat rides?

Do you like flat rides?

  • Total voters
    34
Dhev123

Dhev123

TS Member
Flat Rides can be a lot of fun, and make for some nice filler attractions to break up the day of non-stop coaster riding.

But on the other hand, they offer arguably very different experiences to roller coasters, and while some people can't get enough of them, others avoid them like the plague. I sort of fall in the middle here. While I always go out of my way to try flat rides during my theme park visits, especially at thorpe, some of them can be way too much for me.

For instance, I love drop towers (i.e., detonator/sub-terra), rides like rush and samurai are also great.

I do like rides such as the blade and quantum - although sometimes they make me INCREDIBLY motion sick, like to the point where they kinda ruin my day and make me extremely dizzy. Because of this, I tend to especially avoid vortex at thorpe altogether these days, as while sometimes I can ride it without any issue, it's not worth the risk.

My last trip to towers last month started off super strong, had a ride on reborn and galactica first thing in the pouring rain - then we went on the blade and it kinda ruined the entire day for me because of how sick it made me feel. It was weird, like riding the coasters after were fine but for some reason the airtime on th13teen and galactica also made me feel dizzy, but they wouldn't have if I didn't go on the blade.

Same with vortex, last year I went on it (luckily toward the end of the day) but my god I felt awful and had my eyes shut most of the ride. I notice I get motion sickness on these rides when they repeat a motion, it's almost like the judder of the motion starting that sets it off.

So in terms of where I stand on flat rides, I ADORE some, but also kinda hate quite a few as well (sometimes), which is a shame, because I've had some great times on rides like vortex, quantum, and the blade
 
When researching visiting new parks there always 3rd on my list behind coasters and dark rides. But ahead of water rides, and shows.

Usually though it'll have to be something different and somewhat unique for me to take the time to ride them. Will almost always ride a drop tower or a gyroswing though.
Did do the star flyer at Skyline Park earlier this year which freaked me out, is the tallest in the world though so had to do it.
 
John_P said:
When researching visiting new parks there always 3rd on my list behind coasters and dark rides. But ahead of water rides, and shows.

Usually though it'll have to be something different and somewhat unique for me to take the time to ride them. Will almost always ride a drop tower or a gyroswing though.
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Exactly the same!

And if it’s something that just spins round aggressively then zero interest.
 
I’m personally torn between “no” and “I like some”.

It would be patently false for me to say that I’m not a fan of any flat rides. I absolutely love a good drop tower, and I’m also a big fan of a good S&S Screamin’ Swing. At Thorpe, for example, I absolutely love Detonator and Rush, and on my recent trip to East Anglia, I rode and thoroughly enjoyed both Sky Drop at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and Jolly Roger at Pleasurewood Hills. With Jolly Roger in particular, I thought that was an excellent drop tower, and I rode it three times and came off with a big smile on my face each time!

But on the whole, I’m at best indifferent to most flat rides, and there have been a number I would actually say I didn’t like. The key issue I have is that I don’t have a terribly high spin tolerance, and a lot of flat rides spin. Having done three, I don’t get the hype around gyroswings at all; I vastly prefer S&S’ good old non-spinning Screamin’ Swing, and I think the spinning completely ruins that ride style. I was absolutely wrecked by the likes of Air Race at Drayton Manor and Samurai at Thorpe Park and couldn’t wait for them to end, and when I sampled a number of Drayton Manor’s flat rides during a particularly quiet day at the park where I did 30 rides, I was pretty content with doing all of them bar the excellent Apocalypse only once (perhaps controversially, I’d even put Maelstrom in this bracket!). Even the swinging ship, which on paper should be similar to a Screamin’ Swing, was a ride I bizarrely found somewhat nauseating and was more than content with only doing once.

Unlike most, I’m not massively excited about Project Ocean at Alton Towers on a personal level for this exact reason. While I get what a permanent flat ride at Alton Towers means and how good it is for the park’s variety, I’m sorry to say that it’s not a ride I have a massive level of excitement about actually riding, simply because I’m not generally a huge fan of flat rides.
 
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John_P said:
When researching visiting new parks there always 3rd on my list behind coasters and dark rides. But ahead of water rides, and shows.

Usually though it'll have to be something different and somewhat unique for me to take the time to ride them. Will almost always ride a drop tower or a gyroswing though.
Did do the star flyer at Skyline Park earlier this year which freaked me out, is the tallest in the world though so had to do it.
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While I’m not afraid of heights per se, I can imagine it would be terrifying to be suspended at those heights for that long!
 
Matt N said:
I’m personally torn between “no” and “I like some”.

It would be patently false for me to say that I’m not a fan of any flat rides. I absolutely love a good drop tower, and I’m also a big fan of a good S&S Screamin’ Swing. At Thorpe, for example, I absolutely love Detonator and Rush, and on my recent trip to East Anglia, I rode and thoroughly enjoyed both Sky Drop at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and Jolly Roger at Pleasurewood Hills. With Jolly Roger in particular, I thought that was an excellent drop tower, and I rode it three times and came off with a big smile on my face each time!

But on the whole, I’m at best indifferent to most flat rides, and there have been a number I would actually say I didn’t like. The key issue I have is that I don’t have a terribly high spin tolerance, and a lot of flat rides spin. Having done three, I don’t get the hype around gyroswings at all; I vastly prefer S&S’ good old non-spinning Screamin’ Swing, and I think the spinning completely ruins that ride style. I was absolutely wrecked by the likes of Air Race at Drayton Manor and Samurai at Thorpe Park and couldn’t wait for them to end, and when I sampled a number of Drayton Manor’s flat rides during a particularly quiet day at the park where I did 30 rides, I was pretty content with doing all of them bar the excellent Apocalypse only once (perhaps controversially, I’d even put Maelstrom in this bracket!). Even the swinging ship, which on paper should be similar to a Screamin’ Swing, was a ride I bizarrely found somewhat nauseating and was more than content with only doing once.

Unlike most, I’m not massively excited about Project Ocean at Alton Towers on a personal level for this exact reason. While I get what a permanent flat ride at Alton Towers means and how good it is for the park’s variety, I’m sorry to say that it’s not a ride I have a massive level of excitement about actually riding, simply because I’m not generally a huge fan of flat rides.
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I have excitement for Ocean happening purely as it means more ride availability for the park and *hopefully* shorter reborn queues.

If it is a top spin though I definitely would want to try it as I’ve never actually done one before
 
Dhev123 said:
I have excitement for Ocean happening purely as it means more ride availability for the park and *hopefully* shorter reborn queues.

If it is a top spin though I definitely would want to try it as I’ve never actually done one before
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Same, I'm not into flat rides that much (most thrilling I've done are drop towers and gyroswings), but would definitely consider being brave and giving Ocean a try.
 
Skyscraper said:
Same, I'm not into flat rides that much (most thrilling I've done are drop towers and gyroswings), but would definitely consider being brave and giving Ocean a try.
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I think the good thing with top spins is that yes they do spin a lot but they also have breaks in-between and their circuits can be quite varied, which is reassuring.

There’s nothing I hate more than a flat ride that overstays it’s welcome and lasts much longer than it needs to, so hopefully ocean has a decent ride length but not too long
 
Honestly, not really. They certainly they have their place. Ripsaw/Blade/Submission I thought from a thematic and spectacle perspective were excellent.

But if I had the choice I’d rather a dark ride, “experience” something akin to sub terra or even flat ride in the dark. Seems a damn shame the FV arcade wasn’t made bigger for this purpose.
 
I like flat rides, especially intense ones such as a Tivoli Extreme. However, I prefer the vast majority of rollercoasters and most dark rides to them.
 
Flat rides are a massive catch all though. A Huss Breakdance is very different from say a Fabbri Evolution which is horrid. Also if you include dark rides that use flat rides as the system it varies again, as Mystery Castle is very different to Ghost Train at Thorpe in terms of quality.
 
Is a Vekoma Madhouse a flat ride rather than a dark ride? Assume it's a flat but they're always heavily themed.

Are there any other flat rides that have that level of theming? Only thing i can think of offhand is Tower of Terror/Dr Doom/Sub Terra.

Feels like there's untapped potential for making flats a lot more interesting!

Does flying cinema count as a flat?
 
Bowser said:
Is a Vekoma Madhouse a flat ride rather than a dark ride? Assume it's a flat but they're always heavily themed.

Are there any other flat rides that have that level of theming? Only thing i can think of offhand is Tower of Terror/Dr Doom/Sub Terra.

Feels like there's untapped potential for making flats a lot more interesting!

Does flying cinema count as a flat?
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There's some about. For example:


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHoSTdCzhCg
 
Bowser said:
Bet that looks good in the dark!

Is there a pre-show? That's probably what elevates the examples i cited, when you make the ride feel like part of a story.
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There’s no pre-show on Talocan but then it doesn’t really need it. Walking up to the attraction and then seeing it up close as you go in the queue and wait your turn builds up the anticipation really nicely anyway. It’s actually a very popular ride for people just to stand and watch it going round as it’s pretty spectacular visually.
 
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