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 (2)
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 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.