A place to talk about roller coasters and parks that have them. Everyone is welcome here to both learn and to celebrate these magnificent machines designed to scare you.
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Giant canyon swing always gets me. Obvi it has the positives and floater like any s&s swing, but the acrophobia of feeling like youre about to be hurled off a cliff, combined with the amazing scenery makes it such a top notch installation for me.
Today I rode Air Racers at Carowinds. Holy wow! Surprisingly intense. It is between either than or Samurai at Lagoon.
Seconding Zippers, such an old school and intense experience. Speaking of old school, I got to ride a Roll o Plane for the first time recently at Knoebels and that was super fun too, and surprisingly intense.
I think Screaming Swings in general would be my 2nd favorite. I'm just always annoyed by how short the ride cycles are!
Knoebels is actually working on adding a Rock-o-Plane as well..... I'm so looking forward to that. I really would love to see them add a Zipper as well.
The real win would be if they could find a Chance Turbo (only 20ish were ever made)..... That's one of two rides that I would do nearly anything to be able to ride..... The other one is a Huss Booster but only 3 of those were ever made.
Just looked up a video of the Turbo and what the hell... That is diabolical lol
That's one way to describe it haha..... looks like so much fun..... It's like that moment on the Zipper when it throws you face first at the ground except..... constantly lol
A relaxing ride on a wave swinger is always fun. I don’t suppose WindSeeker or Star Flyer models count as flat rides?
Those are absolutely flats.
A flat ride is generally anything that isn't a coaster or dark ride..... The name comes from fair rides that pack "flat" on trailers but it's used for nearly everything now.
So yea, most people would consider the star flyers and windseekers flats..... I actually think there are fair versions of the starflyers as well but don't quote me on that 😂
Ah I see, I figured it had to do with height partially as well. Then I’d probably pick either of them over the wave swinger. I love looking over the surrounding area from up high while also getting a nice breeze.
I remember a summer camp I went to as a kid that had a "giant swing" that was essentially two 50' towers and a pulley system. Shit went so hard
Honestly I love the basic rides like twister and waltzer, especially since I don't really have any "hardcore" friends so things like this are easy enough to get them on board with and they're just good old fashioned fun. The bigger rides are alright but it's not the same when you have to ride them alone!
There is this one ride though that I've only ever seen at one fair (it pops up annually in our area and this ride is there maybe 25% of the time). Not sure of the technical name for it. It's basically like if you put a twister upside down, replaced the long seats with two-person egg-shaped capsules, and then spin the eggs upside down while everything else rotates too. Great times.
You've got me stumped lol..... The only "Twister" ride I know is an extremely rare ride so I'm almost certain that's not what you mean. Rides jumping to mind are a scrambler and if that's not it a tilt-a-whirl. IIRC you're on the other side of the pond so this is probably a different name to each of us.
As for your description it kind of sounds like you might be referring to a Chance Zipper that we've been talking about in other comments.
Your tilt-a-whirl is like a more sedate waltzer, as far as I understand it. A proper waltzer is enclosed, dark, and with music and lights thumping as you spin. Bonus points if teenagers who just met in the queue are now hooking up in one of the cars and thinking nobody's noticed.
I looked up "scrambler" and yep, that's a twister!
They're both absolute staples of British fairs and you'll rarely see anywhere without them.
Over there it seems you do things right with having a complete experience on rides with light and sound..... In the US it's just the ride and that's it outside of the big parks like Universal and Disney (thought some parks are finally coming around to realizing how important theming can be). There are a few gems like Knoebels' Cosmotron which is a Himalaya (Music Express) ride but I can't remember which specific manufacture theirs is....
"Scambler" and "Tilt-a-whirl" are both absolute staples at both parks and fairs here as well..... I figured it was just another name for something that was common here but wasn't completely sure.
I found a picture of the Twister ride that I was talking about. The model name of this is actually "Twister" and was produce by Chance (IIRC) -- I don't think many of these remain. I also found a video of one that used to be at Indiana Beach. The one that used to be a Lakemont that I rode never ran quite as good as that but it was still insanely fun.
If you want a permanent attraction it's either Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at WDW or Forbidden Journey at IoA.
For simple ride there is nothing that beats a Zipper or nearly any old school Chance ride.... Gravitron (with a good light/sound system) is a close second.
Hmm that forbidden journey seems more like a dark ride. But yeah do you know if there's any permanent zipper installs? I really don't frequent fairs lol. I tried to get my buddies to rip the rock o plane at lagoon but they were not into that.
The classification of dark ride is really subjective.... Both TZ:ToT and FJ could go both ways but I think of them more as thrill rides.
As for a permanent Zipper I had rumors of one at Jolly Roger in Maryland (30th street) that's permanent but I can't personally confirm that....
I've only ever been on one once, but I will never forget my ride on an old school "Sky Diver" model. (It's the ride with boot shaped cars that can completely 360 corkscrew on a ferris wheel frame). I remember greying / almost blacking out on it and I loved every second of it.
I absolutely couldn't believe the GP didn't complain about the intensity.
The zipper is a close second, Chaos at CP might be my 3rd
