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What ride do you have the most intangible love for?

Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. Many people on here have ride rankings and top 10 lists, and even if they don’t, I’m sure most have rides that they love and rate highly. Often, you can justify your love of a ride in very tangible terms and point to the exact things that you like about it. For instance, you could say that you like a roller coaster because you love its airtime, its speed, its intensity, its whippy turns, or even because you like specific elements.

But sometimes… it’s not that clear-cut. Sometimes, you simply like a ride and don’t really know why. Sometimes, you just like it for some intangible reason. With this in mind, I’d be keen to know; what ride do you have the most intangible love for? What ride do you like, but not really know too many specific reasons why you like it?

I was inspired to make this thread when I was reading the brilliant Phantasialand trip reports by Rob Coasters over on CoasterForce (https://coasterforce.com/forums/thr...-to-put-things-into-words.46696/#post-1166902), and he spoke about FLY and his seemingly intangible love for it in his day 2 trip report. Here’s what he had to say about FLY:
Rob Coasters said:
I’m still a little lost for words on the whole ride and can’t really explain why I like it so much. Time for a ramble.
In my eyes, one of the most important things in the roller coaster community is the ability to justify why you think something. If you’re able to do this, then you can have the most ‘out there’ opinion in the world, and as long as you’re able to say why you think that way, then I can say ‘yeah, sure, I believe you’. If you sat me down and told me why Ice Mountain hands Ride to Happiness’s a**e on a silver plate well enough, I might leave that conversation thinking “huh, he might be onto something”. And that’s the magic of roller coasters.
But FLY is a complex mechanism. FLY basically goes against everything I like in a coaster (provide an out of control experience; FLY’s experience is very controlled) and it lands in my top ten. But why? Why do I like FLY so much? I can’t think of a straight answer other than…

…the VIBES. FLY is a vibe. Simply put, it’s VIBES. I like being on it, I like looking at it, I like being in its presence. Can that be enough reason for a ride to be one of my all-time favourites?
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Rob’s monologue about his intangible love for FLY definitely resonated with me, as while I’ve never ridden FLY, I have certainly had similar feelings towards different rides in the past.

However, the ride that I would say I have the most intangible love for, by far, is Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. I had the opportunity to ride Hagrid’s twice on my June 2023 trip to Florida, and I absolutely adored it. It’s in my top 5, at the #5 spot at present, with the only Florida coasters placed above it being Mako, VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi (and if I’m being honest, I’m still not 100% sure about Iron Gwazi being above Hagrid’s) and the only other non-Florida coaster placed above it being Silver Star. However… I’d struggle to think of many tangible reasons why I love it so much. With the other 4 coasters in my top 5, or maybe even the other 9 coasters in my top 10, I can reel off a reasonably comprehensive list of tangible reasons why I love them. But with Hagrid’s, the only reason I can really provide for loving it as much as I do is that it’s, simply put, a phenomenal amount of fun. In a basic sense, I like my coasters to be fun, thrilling and rerideable, and even though Hagrid’s definitely ticks those three boxes well enough for me for it to hit my top 5, I can’t really explain too well why it ticks those boxes other than that “it just does” or “it’s just so much fun” or “it just gave me that WOW feeling on the brake run”.

But I’d be keen to know; what ride do you have the most intangible love for? What ride do you love, but not really know why you love it so much?
 
Probably Ice Mountain (travelling) for me.
It is an extremely fun ride.
 
Original Nemesis. I don't rate Nemesis as highly as others do, and I'm quite apathetic to the new colour scheme and theme. It will have an identical layout and maybe it's absence that's making me feel this way? I just feel like it's gone forever and isn't really ever coming back.

It's always been great and I understand why it's good. So I thought it was probably just the theme and nostalgia. But that can't be the case either as it has been in a quite depressing state for years and I did fall out of love with it around 10 years ago (maybe I just got too used to it?), but regained my affection in its latter years, with no red water, weeds everywhere and a station falling apart. But when I'm elsewhere in other parks, I always get this feeling that the day could be polished off with a ride on Nemesis. It's the only coaster I could happily lap all day, and I re-ride it on visits more than any coaster anywhere.

Similarly Taron. It has pacing issues and somehow wasn't as good as I was expecting. So why do I love it so much? I liked it first time I rode it, but loved it after a few rides, even though I was still aware of its layout flaws. That may extend to the whole of Phantasialand actually. Something about the whole place has hooked me on it. I can't wait to go back.

Can Can Coaster. Never rode the original Eurosat so I have no nostalgia for it. I came into this fresh. A decent indoor coaster but not mind blowing. Cardboard cut outs used inside. But something about it makes me smile from ear to ear. I just enjoy it a lot, far more than I probably should.
 
Such a boring answer but nemesis has always got the top place in my heart. It just had something special about it.

Also POTC at dlp, I’m not massively a fan of dark water rides but love this one for some reason
 
On paper Efteling is absolutely not my kind of park. While I do consider myself a theme park fan rather than a thrill ride fan, I'd be lying if I said my ride preferences didn't primarily lie in thrill coasters or sometimes flat rides. Efteling has a strong track record in dark rides, which generally don't do much for me, and unfortunately a pretty poor one with coasters. OK, there are aspects of Efteling that someone knowing my usual interests would be able to see would appeal to me (real steam locos on the park railway! A coaster themed to mining! Hertog Weizener carts everywhere on summer late close days!), but on the whole they'd presume the whole package wouldn't suit me.

You know what? I really like a day at Efteling now and again. I probably wouldn't go there for a weekend on its own, but as a day of a longer trip it's a very welcome sight on the plan.

Not only that, while I love the realisation of Baron 1898's theme, its music (Efteling has great music everywhere actually), and the whole build-up through its pre-shows to setting off up the lift hill, whittled down to the 'track and train' experience it leaves me completely cold. Instead, the rides there I probably enjoy the most are dark rides of all things.

Fata Morgana should not be my thing whatsoever. I don't really get most 'trundling past scenes on a boat' rides. The station might look vaguely like something out of a middle eastern bus depot, for goodness' sake. If I had to guess at why I like it, I find the way the scenes are split up help to keep things interesting. You don't always just float round a corner and into the next scene. The towboat system might almost send you back out the way you came, or a wizard might part a rock wall to let you see something you feel you're probably not meant to.

The first ride that came to mind in response to this topic though was Carnaval Festival.

It's not that detailed, clearly not expensively produced, and is/was pretty crude in both execution and occasionally scene content. The downright racist scenes were absolutely not OK as they were, and they're not a lot better now really are they?

I feel pretty conflicted about that last bit in particular, because otherwise it's also inexplicably an utter delight; far more fun and enjoyable than it has any right to be. The music and the way it changes helps, but what otherwise boils down to a tongue in cheek version of It's a Small World with a glint in its eye should still fall somewhere between tiresome and harrowing. The fact that this doesn't, and that I actually enjoy the music rather than detesting the mere hint of a few notes, completely baffles me.
 
Ooooh, I'm 100% here for having a topic about intangible love for rides! Here are at least 3 I've written up (and believe me, there's plenty more rides I can talk about).

Carnaval Festival, Efteling
Out of Efteling’s dark rides, none have fascinated me more than Carnaval Festival’s history. Externally designed for 10 million guilders by film producer Joop Geesink, Carnaval Festival is Geesink’s ‘cheerier and colourful’ it’s a small world sans 1960s political context, peaceful message and compassionate representation. What makes it even more bizarre is in 1983, Efteling badly needed something ready for the 1984 season even if it meant having a ride that stylistically went against the park’s carefully curated aesthetic to keep up with their ambitious multi year plan, since Ton Van de Ven’s final project for said plan, Fata Morgana, was delayed.

Carnaval Festival is such a loud, saturated, overwhelming experience for anyone to sit through just once. There’s something uncanny about Jokie and the figures that don’t sit quite right, and Efteling’s strange attitude to not touching it or former neighbour Monsieur Cannibale for decades has only recently been mitigated by their attempts to tone down the racism in the Asia and Africa scenes. Yet, as per Cheese’s summary above, I always have fun riding Carnaval Festival and love seeing other people’s reactions wondering what the hell just happened. I end up listening to the soundtrack a lot on my commute, thanks to me somehow having 3 different versions on my phone. It’s a wonder I’m not sick of the music either.

Matterhorn Blitz, Europa-Park
As per my profile’s silly location, I have a soft spot for Matterhorn Blitz. Most Mack Rides and Maurer Wild Mouse coasters (Wild Meese, if you will) I’ve ridden are, respectively, predictable and occasionally dull. They exist to fill gaps between big expensive investments and the most they make us think is about our life choices when exiting with mildly bruised arms and hips. It’s no surprise Matterhorn Blitz ranks low on most Europa-Park coaster lists, alongside Swiss Bobbahn, but this quaint Pennine Alps farm themed coaster has been yodelling to me on a creative level for the last decade.

We get a catchy soundtrack and dated animatronics with an array of animals, snoring old men and Dawn Swiss peeling potatoes, plus gorgeous floral arrangements throughout the very questionably designed queue. We don’t go up a lift hill to the top of the tower, no, Mack Rides decided to give this Wild Mouse a tilting elevator lift themed to a hen house with a poor squirrel stuck at the front of each car. I find its existence just gets funnier when one is standing in the Eurosat CanCan garden extension viewing the sumptuous statues and listening to the bohemian music, enraptured by the Montmartre atmosphere, because the music and sound effects are loud enough to be heard across the Blinde Elz.

Matterhorn Blitz, in pure roller coaster terms, is nothing special or unique beyond the elevator lift. However the experience leading up to it is so well done that I admire the creative team’s decision to humour and entertain visitors two years after the cool, sleek, serious space themed debut of Franz Mack’s EuroMir.

Th13teen, Alton Towers
I don’t think I will ever be able to truly express my ✨ intangible love ✨ and admiration for Th13teen. Morwenna’s full on marketing scheme about this major new ‘psychoaster’, that’s so daring and defiant that people such as the “look at this gun, wow” guy uploaded videos for a competition to determine who truly is the bravest to ride Th13teen and the hilarious disappointment that followed on first visit must’ve truly scrambled my teen enthusiast brain. One might argue it’s the cause of my admiration for the many other poor investment brethren of Merlin’s reign *cough* Nemesis Sub-Terra *cough* Ghost Train *cough*.

And I may skip coasters like RMT, Spinball, Rita, maybe Galactica and The Smiler on trips but miss out on Th13teen? Oh no, perish the thought! I just have to experience what Robb Alvey once called “a roller skate through the woods” in order to hear some visitors murmur “is that it?” as we roll into the Wraith’s shed, doors close behind us and everyone proceeds to scream as we thud down into the basement and suddenly roll backwards into the sunlight, wondering what the hell just happened.
 
I feel the same way about Ththirteenteen, but surely that makes it quite tangiable? I suppose looking objectively at just the ride perhaps, but in the context of it being the first one I followed from rumour to riding, and it launching a thousand memes, I think I can really put my finger on why it has a place in my heart.

Explaining why I loved Sub Terra though...
 
Great topic! I can think of a couple...

Monorail at Europa Park. Mainly because this is the kind of thing I would have built in Roller Coaster Tycoon, but actually existing in real life. There's nothing exciting about this ride, but there is something very special about the leisurely elevated view of more of the park.

The Tiki Room at Disneyland. More of a show than a ride, but a must-do for me whenever I'm there. Despite being 6 (!) decades old, the charm of the environment and the catchy songs still add up to a wonderful time--not to mention you're allowed, or even encouraged, to have a Dope Whip during the show. It's also a nice way to pay tribute to Walt Disney, as it was one of the last things he worked on personally, and despite some technical upgrades and a few edits to make the show a little shorter, it exists in more or less the same state it did in 1963. It's great today, but I also think about how completely out of this world it must have been to experience at the time, when nothing like it had been seen before.
 
Rockin' Tug Appreciation Society member here

No idea why but if there's one, I'll more than happily ride it. Just find them fun, be they boat or not boat themed.
 
Spaceship Earth for me. Epcot is my happy place since I first went as a 5 year old in 1988 and whenever stepping foot into the park, it just makes me emotional. It's the only full park Disney day we're doing later this month as I don't think I could ever visit a Orlando without going there.

The ride itself brings back fun memories over the years and the young lad selling the newspapers is one scene that has always stuck with me from my childhood. On our last visit back in 2019, the ride had a temporary stop for about 10 mins as we just arrived at the "Jessie Owens has four gold medals" scene. That sentence is now something I repeat to the family when I want to annoy someone....i genuinely think that scene has actually mentally scarred us all.

I just hope they revisit the proposed refresh as its now very dated.
 
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Grand National at BPB, loved it since I was a kid and would use most of my A tickets on it. Think Pleasure Beach as a whole really, place is filled with memories of family trips during the summer holiday, and the glorious 50p weekends they'd open the season with.
The other parks we'd regularly visit, Camelot, Ocean Beach (Rhyl), and Southport are all gone or completely unrecognisable from those days.
 
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