Best family roller coasters?
I am wanting to wrote a front-page post featuring top family roller coasters and wanted to get the community's input before I did.
Last year's TPI reader survey placed two coasters with height requirements of 40 inches or below on our Top 40. Those are the last two coasters on the list: Hiccup's Wing Gliders at Universal and Disney's Big Thunder Mountain. I also would nominate Dollywood's Big Bear Mountain as an elite family coaster.
But what are some other noteworthy coasters with low height requirements?
EPCOT's Guardians of the Galaxy has a 42-inch requirement, and that one seems to be juuuust on the wrong edge of what I am looking for, so my inclination is to use 40 inches as the cut-off for "family" coasters here. But I definitely am open to persuasion if anyone wants to argue for a different cut-off.
Thoughts?
Replies (4)
It's closer to 48", and I haven't been on either, but honorable mention to Maximus and Mandrill Mayhem, the two B&M family wing coasters. Each one actually has two inversions - in my opinion, more family coasters should have inversions.
It makes more sense that a child's first inversion should be on a smooth, modern family coaster and not a monster b&m looper or rough arrow/Schwartzcopf. I'd love to see vekoma try their hand at an inverting family coaster.
I disagree with using height requirement as the sole criteria for family coaster because that's far more dependent on the design of the trains and restraints than on the ride's intensity. For instance, Jaguar and Knott's and X2 at SFMM both have 48" height restrictions, but one is an oversized junior coaster and the other is among the most extreme coasters in the country.
My criteria for family coaster is that it's a ride an average elementary schooler could ride with an average grandparent. Most kids reach the magical 48" mark by third grade, but it would be reasonable to make the cutoff 42", a level almost every first-grader could meet. For the other requirements, I generally use the following parameters...
-Max speed ~40 mph
-Max height ~80 ft
-Max drop ~50 ft
-Max force ~3g
-No inversions
Using those parameters, I'd classify the following as the best family coasters I've personally ridden...
1. Big Thunder Mountain @ Disneyland Paris - Disneyland Park
2. Space Mountain @ Disneyland
3. Cornball Express @ Indiana Beach
4. Wooden Warrior @ Quassy Amusement Park
5. Manta @ SeaWorld San Diego
6. Van Helsing's Factory @ Movie Park Germany
7. Revenge of the Mummy @ Universal Studios Florida
8. Oscar's Wacky Taxi @ Sesame Place
9. Zambezi Zinger @ Worlds of Fun
10. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain @ Indiana Beach
Coasters that fall just outside these parameters (i.e. too big of drop, too fast, or having an inversion, but otherwise lower intensity) are what I define as family thrill. These are the rides I rank highest in that category...
1. Phoenix @ Knoebels Amusement Park
2. Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure @ Universal Studios Islands of Adventure
3. Lightining Run @ Kentucky Kingdom
4. American Thunder @ Six Flags St. Louis
5. Zokkon @ Fuji-Q Highland
6. Verbolten @ Busch Gardens Williamsburg
7. Cyclone @ Luna Park
8. Incredicoaster @ Disney California Adventure Park
9. Giant Dipper @ Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
10. White Lightning @ Fun Spot America
To me a family coaster is one that doesn't have any inversions or large drops. So even with the bigger height requirements, I would still consider Hagrid's the best family coaster, with Guardians Cosmic Rewind a close second and Hiccup's Wing Glider also in contention.
I think the problem with using a hard line height restriction as a cutoff is because different chains and locales have very different rules on height restrictions. You can put a coaster like GotG:CR in Illinois or New Jersey, and it would have a 48" heigh restriction. Conversely, there are plenty of coasters geared toward families with 48" height restrictions that would have much lower bars if they were in a Disney/Universal park.
I think it makes more sense to look at individual coasters based on a given park's lineup.