B&M vs. Intamin

For instance: I dont yhink Millennium force is the tallest anymore, but Apollo's still holds the record for most drops.

Both companies produce completely different styles of coasters. It just depends on the style desired. Intamin coasters have sharper turns and tend to be more rough, which appeals to some people. They also have tighter restraints and smaller cars, which can be a problem. B&M coasters are extremely smooth, and are more exciting than thrilling. The seats are large, and the restraints can be tiny and are moulded, which can also cause problems.

It really just depends on the space of the area, the height, the duration it will be open, and the demographic of the guests in the area. Personally, I prefer B&M because they are smoother and tend to be "bigger" (not necessarily in height or speed, but in excitement and quality) than Intamin.

Size and speed don't make the best rides to everyone. I have ridden TTD, 13 seconds wow, but I guess if going Up fast is your thing.

(man, these discussion boards need a moderator)

Apollo's Chariot was smooth as ice last time I was on her, but she hasn't got squat on SFOG's Goliath. I just wish we could have Goliath with the view that AC has...

Then again, there's about a gazillion factors that determine whether the ride is smooth or not. Last time I was on Kumba, I got beat up pretty bad, but I know that's not a normal ride. Even Hulk has an occasional off day.

Things going against Intamin
-very unreliable (ahem, TTD and Kingda Ka)
-not always a good ride, unles you were looking for a reason to need a deep massafge
-often low capacity
-not always safe
-I think some of the track is just bulky
-often the biggest but not the best

Point made!

Things going against B&M:

1. The layouts are often repetitive.

2. They won't make bigger coasters or utilize the new technology like Intamin does.

3. Can get boring after riding them many times in a row.

4. Only have 6 types of coasters, and like I mentioned before layouts are repetitive so once you rode one of each type you pretty much rode them all.

Things going for Intamin:

1. Produce the most exciting and thrilling coasters.

2. Utilize the newest technology, which is probably why they aren't as reliable as B&M who doesn't utilize the technology Intamin does.

3. Almost all of the layouts of Intamins are different, so you hardly get the same ride at different parks.

4. They can make great huge coasters(Millennium, TTD, Kingda Ka) and can also make really great small coasters(Maverick)

Haha, Brandon, that's your opinion & not a fact about all Intamin coasters. But you definitely made very good points.

Plus, they never get boring, the layouts are great, and Intamin layouts can get boring, (ahem, new intimidator coaster)and often, the new technologies are a bust.

You can ALWAYS rely on B&M to provide a safe, trilling, and fun coaster that NEVER gets boring. I have ridden Kraken 25 times and am still not bored by it!

I'll make comments about your comments for both:

B&M are always super smooth, and rarely get rougher over the years (with an acception of the hulk). Intamins, however, do get rougher over the years, but it usually isn't too bad. Even when intamin coasters come out, they aren't super smooth like B&M, but it makes their coasters more intense. Oh, and for B&M, the smoothness can make the ride more or less enjoyable. Sometimes you want your ride a little "aggressive", which B&M coasters can't do as well as Intamin.

Okay, all coasters for both companies aren't too repetitive. I have ridden a Batman the ride clone 13 times in a row. But for Intamin, I've ridden S:ROS at my home park, SFA, over 125 times in my life, and my record for the day is 23. (That ride never gets old! :D)

Although B&M only has 7 types of coasters, they are all amazing. Also, even though they are never over 250 feet, they are rarely below about 120, besides the batman clones. They are always lengthy, too! Intamin, on the other hand, make a huge variety of coasters. LIM, LSM, inverted, sit down, hyper, giga, strata, cable lift, woodie, impulse, etc., plus some flat rides. They can be as high as 456 feet and as fast as 128, but they can also be pretty short. They can be really long, but some of them are pretty short.

I love B&M's seating: 4 across, and always at least 7 rows. Besides Cedar Fair and Hershey, they let you ride again in an open seat, so you don't have to go around. That way, you can ride the same ride over and over! On intamin, it's almost always 2 across. the trains can be from 3 cars to 9!

So, both companies have their ups and downs. They are both my 2 favorite designers, and I can't choose which is better. As for my top ten list, this is how I place them:

1. Kingda Ka
2. El Toro
3. Griffon
4. Volcano: The Blast Coaster/ Goliath (SFOG)
5. Alpengeist/ Apollo's Chariot
6. Stormrunner
7. Nitro
8. Hydra: the Revenge
9. Lightning racer/ Dominator
10. The Boss/ Talon

1: Intamin
2. Intamin
3. B&M
4. Intamin/B&M
5. B&M/B&M
6. Intamin
7. B&M
8. B&M
9. GCI (my fav woodie only company)/B&M
10. CCI/B&M

Take some time and go through your top 10 and see which is better for you! Mine is split practiacally right down the middle! :D

I know its a weird list, but my interests are a bit different. I am not always for the biggest and the best!

Manufacturers
1)B&M
2)B&M
3)B&M
4)Vekoma
5)Vekoma
6)B&M
7)Intamin
8)B&M
9)Schwarzkopf
10)Philidelphia Toboggan Company

My Top ten list has spoken out about my interests!

It's not too weird, but all I wanna know is which parks have you been to? Because you didn't put the best coasters toward the end... in my opinion, of course. And yes, GOLIATH IS AWESOME! :D I love the front!

And please go to my discussion of Top 10 coasters and post your top 10! thanks! :D

And I'm sick of people saying either Intimidator layout is "boring". Sure, it may not appear to be a thrilling layout but neither has given any rides yet so who are we to judge?

And no, Eli, I don't like Bizzaro more. I like the first drop, but after that I kinda feel it is a little lackluster. I am probably alone when I say that. And to answer your question, I grew up around the Orlando parks and they are still my favorites. I will admit that it is a completely biased list, but isnt it supposed to be?:)

1)B&M
2)Intamin
3)B&M/B&M
4)B&M
5)B&M
6)B&M
7)B&M
8)B&M
9)B&M
10)B&M

I guess I really like B&Ms. Wow, I never realized that it was that high. With the exception of Volcano, I could probably be classified as a B&M freak.

Also, I am personally looking forward to Intimidator 305. The high speed curves look to be fun as opposed to boring. Also, the banked S-Bend turns look like loads of fun. I can't wait to ride it.

1.X2
2.Tatsu
3.Expedition Everest
4.Terminator Salvation
5.Xcelerator
6.Silver Bullet
7.Riddler's Revenge
8.California Screamin'
9.Scream!
10.Wicked!

1. S&S
2. B&M
3. Vekoma
4. GCI
5. Intamin
6. B&M
7. B&M
8. Intamin
9. B&M
10.Zierer

Alright, now on responses:

Andrew, I'm just saying that most of your list is from Florida. I've only been on the east coast besides St. Louis. I just thought that maybe you haven't tried other Intamins, but maybe you have.

Haha wow Adam! Yes, Volcano deserves its spot!

It'll have no greater speed/height then Millennium Force, why is it so groundbreaking?

You keep coming back to 93mph and an 85 degree drop, yes it's intense but it's nothing different then what we've already seen...

Whenever I ride Mamba at Worlds of Fun my least favorite part is the helix, so I just have something against strong g forces.

But this is all academic. A line graph isn't going to help me figure out if a ride is fun or not. We'll just have to wait until the thing opens (considering Intamin's track record, I'm calling it for mid-June) and find out for ourselves.

Oh, and B&M is still better:)

And I absolutely stand by my opinion that Cedar Point is a great park with mediocre rides. Beautiful location, but I feel that Cedar Fair has been into the "let's see what records we can break this year" game for far too long (which is why I was pleasantly surprised by Maverick - in theory, at least. Riding Maverick wasn't nearly as fun as looking at it for me. I was pretty rattled by the whole affair).

So yeah, not a fan of Maverick. Top Thrill Dragster? Great 17 seconds. Not something I'd want to stand in line for any great period of time for unless it was the first or second train of the day and there was a chance of getting a rollback (I was one train too late last time). Millennium Force has been down two of the three times I've been there, and I wasn't waiting an hour on the third occasion. I'll try to pick it up next season, but I'm not going to go drown myself in Lake Erie if I miss out. Raptor? Tied with Alpengeist as my least favorite B&M inverts. Mantis? Balls. Magnum? Great from a historical perspective, but that is one rattly SOB. I respect Wildcat for being a Schwarzkopf, but it's still a carnival ride. Iron Dragon is bettered by both Top Gun/Flight Deck and the Big Bad Wolf (RIP). Corkscrew is a fairly basic Arrow. Quantity just ain't equaling quality here, folks.

The coasters I genuinely liked at Cedar Point were 1. Gemini, 2. Blue Streak, 3. Mean Streak (yeah, I know) 4. Disaster Transport (bobsled coasters RULE!) and 5. Wicked Twister (but I had been at Geauga Lake getting multiple re-rides on Steel Venom the day before, so it wasn't that big a deal). Note that two of those are wooden coasters, and there's two better wooden coasters elsewhere in the state (Beast and the SBNO Big Dipper over at Geauga Lake).

As far as their flats go, I live in a city that holds a state fair. I don't need to partake in yet another Matterhorn, Octopus, Troika, or Calypso or Scrambler. The only flats that are really notable are Chaos (due to its relative rarity nowadays), MaxAir (too short a program to really be fun), and Skyhawk (WAY too short a program to really be fun).

So five coasters I give a rip about (six if you want to count Gemini twice, which is appropriate) and a few flats that are above average. This is what the fanboys are worked up over? This is the holy grail of the amusement industry?

Nope. Not buying it.

So there's my opinion of Cedar Point. If anything, Cedar Point should make me like Intamins more than B&M, since I loathe both B&Ms in the park...

And I still have no reference to know if I-305 is going to be any good. Just like everyone else, no matter how many line graphs you show.

On CP for me:
Blue streak looks like a classy woodie, but not worth a 10 hour drive from here or a 4 hour drive from my friend in Cinci's.
Cedar Creek mine ride... no need to be talked about
Corkscrew just looks like an old standard, beat up arrow looping coaster
For disaster transport: I have ridden a bobsled, but not an Intamin, so I expect it to be fun
Gemini looks fun, especially with the reviews
Iron Dragon would be my first arrow suspended, but I'm not too excited
Magnum... yeah I've ridden enough hypers, thanks.
As I've heard from others, Mantis is too rough to touch, but I thought Georgia Scorcher was fun with proper foot position.
Maverick looks awesome, and I've heard mixed reviews. Still, I've ridden a variety of different coasters that would be mushed together to make this guy
Donno if I should try Mean Streak
Mullenium force... I used to always try the front for the speed, but I've gotten my top speed I'll get for a while with Kingda ka, but I'm still looking forward to this!
I've ridden plenty of B&M inverts, so I'm sure Raptor will just be another
TTD: as I said, Kingda Ka just without shoulder restraints. Cool twist, but I've technically ridden it. I would still love to give it a shot, but I can experience the same pretty much at SFGAdv.
Wicked twister, I've gotten a strait spike at dorney.

Oh, steve, if raptor and Alpie didn't do too much for ya, what did in the B&M inverts section? Alpie is my favorite, and the batman clones, although awesome, are my least

Oh, and anyone is free to rip at my selections for CP. Shoot.

One last thing: Ever since I was on this site, Steve has been here. As I've learned about him, he's only being "unpleasant" because you are, Peter. Be aware of that.

Kidding, although I don't want my opinion to taint yours. Lots of people love the hell out of Cedar Point. I just think it's a case where they often set records at the expense of creating lasting quality rides. Reading what you said, I have to at least defend Disaster Transport for being indoors and add that (even with the rickets), Magnum can be a fun ride. Sometimes the painful ones are fun - you wouldn't believe how much fun we had getting the crap beaten out of us on Thunderhawk at Worlds of Fun. Magnum is nothing like a B&M hyper, and the tunnels really make for an enhanced ride experience (why the hell isn't anyone building B&M hypers with tunnels?!?!)

For me, Alpengeist's biggest problem is pacing. Because they wanted to make Alpengeist so big, the individual elements are spread out too far. There's a natural progression on the better B&M inverts that just isn't there (I do like the last run through the trench, however. Too many coasters don't have strong finishes, blowing through all the good stuff before the MCBR). It's also gotten pretty rattly lately - when I rode it last month I was very eager to get off as quickly as possible.

Raptor has similar pacing issues - they had to build the coaster around what was already there, so there's some unusual choices in direction and element placement. Again, the natural progression isn't there. It's hard to describe what I mean with "natural progression," but I guess it comes down to a very personal opinion. It was a walk-on when I rode it, and there was zero interest in turning around and giving it another go.

The B&M inverts that have really rocked out are (pretty much in order) Montu, Top Gun/Afterburn, Patriot, Dueling Dragons' Fire, and the Batman clones. But those are all pretty well universally loved coasters so it's not like I'm really trying to be the cool kid who wants to be different with those picks. Okay, some folks would argue that Fire wouldn't be worth talking about if it wasn't part of Dueling Dragons. I agree with that - if you put Fire at a Six Flags in a parking lot it would be incredibly underwhelming. But within the package ride of Dueling Dragons, it freaking delivers the goods.

And the Batman clones represent a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The two I've ridden have been very tight and very fast. Jeez, I think I may have greyed out on SFOG's Batman last time I rode it (wet track FTW). The only other coaster that ever managed to do that was Voyage (before they added the ridiculous and relatively pointless trim on the return section - and again the track was wet).

(oh, and thanks for the support)

Okay, I like lists, so here is mine:

1) Kraken (B&M) - Smooth as silk, and all those inversions. Amazing.

2) Apollo’s Chariot (B&M) - Airtime machine.

3) The Voyage (Gravity Group) - Best wooden coaster, EVER.

4) Revenge of the Mummy (Premier Rides) - USF's winner is the best themed coaster since the Yeti broke down.

5) Expedition Everest (Vekoma's apology for the Boomerang) - Fix the Yeti, Disney, and this coaster goes back to #1.

6) Incredible Hulk Coaster (B&M) – It’s all about the first 15 seconds of the ride. Wow!

7) Griffon (B&M) – Fast, smooth, and unique (for now) to BG parks, at least in the United States.

8) Powderkeg (Premier Rides originally and S&S Power later) – Great launch, fantastic scenery, low 42” height requirement. Best family coaster of all time.

9) Alpengeist (B&M) – Best invert I have ridden.

10) Prowler (GCI) – Smooth as silk, fast as lightning, it hugs the terrain and turns on a dime. Brilliant night ride, as well.

For the record, I have not yet ridden Manta, Diamondback, Maverick, Bizzaro, or any of the coasters at SF Great Adventure. However, of those coaster I have ridden (and there are many), I guess I would say I am a B&M guy.

Hee hee hee ... that sounds funny to me ... hee hee hee ... a B&M Guy ... hee hee hee ...

Quid pro quo, Eli, have you ridden the Voyage?

We must agree to disagree, Eli, until such a time as one of us can experience both uber coasters.

Take a look ^^^ If this Intamin doesn't excite you, you are missing the coaster gene! Yes, my favorites are B&M, but this is unlike any Intamin before!

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