What are your 'no go' rough rides?

April 17, 2024, 2:49 PM

What are the rides at your favorite parks that you refuse to try anymore because they are just too rough?

Replies (13)

April 17, 2024, 4:03 PM

The two that immediate spring to mind:

Ninja - Six Flags St. Louis
Demon - Six Flags Great America

And, Magnum XL 200 at Cedar Point on the wrong day...

Edited: April 17, 2024, 7:26 PM

Honestly I tend to dislike a lot of wooden coasters made before WW2. Almost every park has that one wooden coaster made a really long time ago that’s mediocre at best but way too old to get rid of, and I am not a fan of them. Some notable examples that come to mind include Thunderbolt at Six Flags New England, the Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz Boardwalk, and Jack Rabbit at Kennywood, but I’m sure there are countless other similar examples throughout the country.

April 18, 2024, 9:23 AM

Rip Ride Rocket is not a smooth ride.
Beats you up. I went on and maybe had the wrong undergarments on.

Things moved around a bit and I limped off..

(Stop laughing at me).

April 18, 2024, 10:07 AM

I feel that parks have done a good job over the past decade or so of addressing many of the "rough" rides by either renovating or removing them. The roughness of a coaster doesn't necessarily stop me from riding it, but it will typically keep me from riding it multiple times during a visit. Temperature and other weather conditions (like humidity) can dramatically impact the way some roller coasters ride, so it's always possible that you've caught an attraction on a "good day" or a "bad day", so I'm willing to give pretty much any attraction the benefit of the doubt, particularly if it's a park I don't get to on a regular basis.

April 18, 2024, 11:16 AM

Oddly my sister and I felt the roughest ride on our last Disneyland visit was Autopia.

My niece has refused to ride Dinosaur since first going on it in 1998.

April 18, 2024, 4:46 PM

I love old rickety woodies. Giant Dipper, Cyclone, the OLD Texas Giant, etc. I also love the Rip Ride Rocket. Anything that would scramble eggs I am a fan of. I do understand and appreciate others’ dislike, however. I also love anything with extreme G’s, and if I can find a Rock O Plane at a local carnival, I can make a fighter pilot lose their lunch on it. I further do not believe in the existence of Mission Space Green. Mission Space Orange is the only actual attraction.

That said, I am not small, so any coaster with tight shoulder harness is my no go attractions. This is why I love the Forbidden Journey, as it has plus size seats. Or the seats are just bewitched. Not sure which.

April 22, 2024, 8:04 AM

Rip Ride Rockit got me pretty good the one time I rode it. And Gemini at Cedar Point rang my bell so hard when it hit the brakes that it felt like I got slapped in the back of the head by Hagrid.

April 22, 2024, 10:25 AM

The Comet at Hersheypark - I love it dearly but have hit the age where we have a love/hate relationship.

April 22, 2024, 12:38 PM

I can no longer ride Rip Ride Rocket, Forbidden Journey, or Hulk at UO and Mission Space at WDW.

April 22, 2024, 11:07 PM

I don't ride any Vekoma Boomerangs or SLCs, even with the new trains/restraints I have found the rides to still be extremely rough and uncomfortable. Oddly enough the Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerangs are awesome, however.

In regards to terrible roughness there are three that immediately come to my mind: Cyclone at SFNE, Mean Streak at Cedar Point, and Time Warp at Canada's Wonderland. I have only ridden the original Cyclone once because the jackhammering was so painful. Mean Strek I had ridden a few times and didn't have that much of a problem with (it wasn't good but I didn't think it was as bad as many people said it was), but when I rode in 2007 the jackhammering was so painful that I had to do the "prop up" the entire ride so my body wasn't against the seat. This isn't the only coasters I had to do this with (Zues and Hades at Mt Olympus, both horribly maintained coasters at a horribly maintained park, I did as well) but Mean Streak was so long that it was exhausting. I came off that thing thinking how is this still operating and not sending people to the hospital on a daily basis? Funny enough the new versions of Cyclone and Mean Streak now are both in my top 10 best coasters in the world.

Time Warp is the only Zamperla Volare I have ridden and the only one I ever will ride, so I can't compare it to the other ones, but my god that thing feels straight up unsafe. I can't believe its still operating 15 years later.

Son of Beast I had only ridden a few times but luckily didn't find it as bad as most people did. Granted it was likely a situation like Mean Strek where maybe I just hadn't had a really bad ride on it yet, but my friend that rode in a different row was broken for hours after riding it. I will say without question that SOB was by far the scariest roller coaster I have ever ridden. Just looking at that structure, knowing the rides reputation for being painfully rough, was terrifying. Looking at that coaster you just got "wooden coasters should NOT be 200ft tall" vibes. Granted nowadays its a lot different because Intamin pre-fabs and RMCs are so much better engineered, but back then the technology had not caught up with the execution.

There are a lot of other coasters I would not ride, or not ride again, but it has more to do with my age now. My wife and I stood by the side and watched our friends ride the Smiler at Alton Towers and I have no interest in riding Steel Curtain at Kennywood. Guardians of the Galaxy at Epcot is another one I have no interest in riding again.

April 23, 2024, 12:32 AM

While every ride is different, these coaster models I generally pass on unless I need to ride them for the credit or I'm visiting with someone who really wants to ride but refuses to do so alone:

-Arrow Loopscrews
-Dinn woodies (and other manufacturers if poorly maintained)
-Vekoma Boomerangs, Corkscrews and SLCs
-Zamperla Volares

Beyond coasters, the only other rides that bother me due to roughness are older simulator rides that tend to be particularly jerky. Most rides I won't ride are because they perform certain motions I don't particularly enjoy than because they're too rough while doing so.

April 23, 2024, 12:22 PM

Rip Ride Rockit was smooth as silk when it first opened. I can't ride it all anymore without getting a blistering headache. Kumba at BGT is also way past its prime and my head rattles all over the place.

April 25, 2024, 3:04 PM

Canyon Blaster at Adventuredome


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