Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. As an enthusiast, you’ll naturally ride many rides you come off and think “wow, that was great!”. Often, these rides will blow you away, and leave you thinking “wow, that was truly top tier!”. But sometimes, I find that a great ride can feel like it’s missing something. I don’t know about anyone else, but I sometimes come off a ride thinking “that was really, really great… but it lacked something to make it truly top tier, and I can’t quite place what”.
The thing that got me thinking about this was reading a brilliant trip report from Linnanmaki, written by Serena from CoasterForce (https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/its-the-eye-of-the-taiga-5-hours-at-linnanmäki.45592/), where her closing statement about Taiga after a full day of riding was:
So my question to you today is; have you ever ridden a great ride that hits all the right notes, but misses a certain something to make it truly top tier? Have you ever felt like a ride misses that je ne sais quoi that makes something truly top tier rather than merely great?
I can think of a few rides that fit this description for me, but I can think of two where it’s most apparent. One coaster and one non-coaster.
The first that comes to mind is Blue Fire at Europa Park. It is an excellent coaster that I really enjoyed, and it hits many great notes; it’s smooth, it has comfortable trains, it has a punchy launch, there are some really nice moments of hangtime, the last inversion is awesome, and in general, it’s just a really excellent coaster. However… I found it lacking a certain something to elevate it from a 9/10 to a 10/10, and I can’t quite place what. It’s a brilliant coaster, and I really enjoyed my rides on it, but I just felt that it lacked something. If I’m being critical, I did feel that it lacked airtime for a ride of its type, and I did think it felt somewhat slow for a coaster of 62mph, but I don’t think it was either of those things on its own… I just found it to be missing a certain something. I very much enjoyed BF, and it does narrowly make my top 10 (although my coaster count of 91 makes that less of an achievement than it would be if my coaster count was larger), but I wasn’t quite getting that top tier feeling from it.
The other ride that comes to mind is Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom. As with Blue Fire, I thought Flight of Passage was excellent. It hit all the right notes, and was a really great dark ride, in my opinion. It’s comfortably my favourite of the flying theatre style rides I’ve done. However… something about it left me feeling a little bit cold (and that something wasn’t the air conditioning blasting out in the pre-show). Expectations may not have helped; I went in hearing extremely superlative reviews saying about how it was “the best ride in the world”, and how people were “deeply moved” by it, and how it made them cry etc etc etc, so my expectations were naturally sky high. The fact that the ride is just one big screen might not help it, either; don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with screens unlike many enthusiasts, but I do think these “one big screen” rides with no tracked ride system do lack something to make them truly top tier dark rides, on the whole. I’m not sure it was that on its own, though… I just found something to be missing. Don’t get me wrong, I thought Flight of Passage was excellent, and I did really enjoy it, but I felt like something was missing, and I wasn’t entirely sold on its obscene hype.
But what attractions have you done that hit all the right notes, but miss something to make them truly top tier?
The thing that got me thinking about this was reading a brilliant trip report from Linnanmaki, written by Serena from CoasterForce (https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/its-the-eye-of-the-taiga-5-hours-at-linnanmäki.45592/), where her closing statement about Taiga after a full day of riding was:
I don’t know if Serena actually feels this way or not, but my inference from that is that the way she feels about Taiga is very similar to the feeling I described above, where the ride was really great, and hit all the right notes, but just lacked something to make it truly top tier.
So my question to you today is; have you ever ridden a great ride that hits all the right notes, but misses a certain something to make it truly top tier? Have you ever felt like a ride misses that je ne sais quoi that makes something truly top tier rather than merely great?
I can think of a few rides that fit this description for me, but I can think of two where it’s most apparent. One coaster and one non-coaster.
The first that comes to mind is Blue Fire at Europa Park. It is an excellent coaster that I really enjoyed, and it hits many great notes; it’s smooth, it has comfortable trains, it has a punchy launch, there are some really nice moments of hangtime, the last inversion is awesome, and in general, it’s just a really excellent coaster. However… I found it lacking a certain something to elevate it from a 9/10 to a 10/10, and I can’t quite place what. It’s a brilliant coaster, and I really enjoyed my rides on it, but I just felt that it lacked something. If I’m being critical, I did feel that it lacked airtime for a ride of its type, and I did think it felt somewhat slow for a coaster of 62mph, but I don’t think it was either of those things on its own… I just found it to be missing a certain something. I very much enjoyed BF, and it does narrowly make my top 10 (although my coaster count of 91 makes that less of an achievement than it would be if my coaster count was larger), but I wasn’t quite getting that top tier feeling from it.
The other ride that comes to mind is Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom. As with Blue Fire, I thought Flight of Passage was excellent. It hit all the right notes, and was a really great dark ride, in my opinion. It’s comfortably my favourite of the flying theatre style rides I’ve done. However… something about it left me feeling a little bit cold (and that something wasn’t the air conditioning blasting out in the pre-show). Expectations may not have helped; I went in hearing extremely superlative reviews saying about how it was “the best ride in the world”, and how people were “deeply moved” by it, and how it made them cry etc etc etc, so my expectations were naturally sky high. The fact that the ride is just one big screen might not help it, either; don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with screens unlike many enthusiasts, but I do think these “one big screen” rides with no tracked ride system do lack something to make them truly top tier dark rides, on the whole. I’m not sure it was that on its own, though… I just found something to be missing. Don’t get me wrong, I thought Flight of Passage was excellent, and I did really enjoy it, but I felt like something was missing, and I wasn’t entirely sold on its obscene hype.
But what attractions have you done that hit all the right notes, but miss something to make them truly top tier?
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