I think I’m on 600, but I’ve got some dubious ones:
- SuperSplash at Plopsaland and Aktium at Cinecitta World. As they’re the same ride as Atlantica SuperSplash which is on RCDB, I see no reason why these are not.
- Fuga de Atlantide at Gardaland. If you’re not convinced, just watch a POV of this ride. The track at the top is clearly Intamin coaster track, yet no RCDB entry.
- Should Steeplechase at BPB be counted as one or three? Its three separate tracks afterall, which have ever so slightly different layouts, give or take a few centimetres of track, so why not count as three?
I’m interested to hear peoples’ thoughts.
With regard to the first two, RCDB’s justification behind not counting these as coasters is that they do not coast in areas that aren’t part of a major drop sequence, whereas rides like Atlantica do. Atlantica has the backwards drop between the turntables, whereas SuperSplash, Aktium and Fuga de Atlantide do not have any coasting sections that aren’t part of a major drop sequence.
Personally, I broadly agree with RCDB on these types of matters, although I’m admittedly unsure on some of these cases. My thinking is; if you count anything with roller coaster track, then quite a few rides that are commonly considered log flumes and have had few ever try to argue that they are roller coasters become roller coasters. For instance, Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls at Islands of Adventure has Mack water coaster track in sections, but few have ever tried to argue that it’s anything other than a log flume. So in my opinion, you do have to draw the line somewhere seeing as more and more log flumes are starting to have “coasting” elements on their drops.
With that being said, I can definitely see your reasoning behind saying that they are coasters, and you are well within your right to count them as such regardless of what I or anyone else says; your coaster count is entirely your own, after all!
With regard to Steeplechase, I entirely agree with you, and would count those 3 sides as 3 credits. It’s irrelevant currently as I’ve only ridden one side, but if I ever get on either of the other two, then they will be separate credits for me.
With that being said, my reasoning for that is possibly slightly different to yours. My logic with these duelling coasters is that the sides are only separate credits if they can operate separately and distinctly from one another. For instance, if you put a chainsaw between the sides of Steeplechase, you could operate them as entirely separate coasters. As such, Steeplechase represents 3 credits, in my view.
However, you could not do the same with Grand National across the park, as that ride is a möbius loop and not two truly separate sides. As such, I only count Grand National as 1 credit. If Grand National’s sides were separate, then I would unquestionably be classing it as 2 credits, but that möbius loop aspect does mean that Grand National is only 1 credit for me.
