Your next Beast goal needs to be riding it during the Haunt! It is next level! All the fog from the park, dark woods, pitch black tunnels…now that’s a religious experience! Might be bias bc KI is my home park 😂
Wild Eagle: Dollywood is my home park. Best seats are the back two rows OR the outside seat in the right side of row 1. That outside seat is legitimately awesome and when the coaster gets low to the ground, you get some kind of near miss moments that you normally miss out on.
I went to Dollywood for the first time back in April, and Thunderhead blew me away. I had TimeSaver so I rode it 3 or 4 times in a row, it was that freaking good
I rode 40 new coasters but no rerides this year, so I'll say a few things about some of these: I really like Galaxy Spin, so Rajun Cajun looks awesome 14 - I'm a big Nighthawk fan, so I really want to ride Batwing 12 - Need to reride Wild Eagle now that I've been on GateKeeper and Thunderhead 10 - Thunderhead is great! 8 - Rode Vortex once and it was actually alright. Not great, but not nearly as bad as people say. I did ride the front, so that might have something to do with it 7 - Nitro looks like Goliath and I'm really excited to ride this someday! 4 - Rode Storm Chaser this summer and it wasn't as powerful as people say, but it was still a lot of fun. Great airtime! 3 - Never rode the original trains on SkyRush, but these lap bars actually kind of hurt me, so I can't imagine what they were before. Also, yeah it's really rough. I tried middle seats but I still got rattled to death. 1- The Beast the best the Beast the best the Beast! Maybe I'll get to visit Dollywood next year and reride some things... or SeaWorld, idk, we'll see
Liking the love you gave to Six Flags America! I just hit up this park for the first time this past summer and had fun! Rode Superman 7 times. Love the first drop and the airtime hill after the first helix!
Skyrush shot up in my rankings as well! Everything else fell in my rankings because I got 86 credits this year which almost doubled my credit count from last year. Even Steel Vengeance and Fury 325 fell from #1 and #2 respectively to #2 and #3 respectively because Voyage became my new #1. I was so blown away by it, and I haven't even gone to Holiwood nights yet!
My only re-rides this year were my home-park favorites, Yankee Cannonball and Untamed at Canobie. Not much to say about them--the way they ride hasn't changed in several years. They're both fun but not extraordinary. Yankee Cannonball, these days, is unusually well-kept and smooth for a woodie from the 1930s.
Scream is a fantastic night ride. I got lucky and did it on a Fourth of July weekend and the ride op told us we'd get the best view of the fireworks in the park. Fireworks started before we left the station and he held us on the lift hill for a minute or so which was awesome and then the rest of the ride lit by the fireworks was pretty magical. I love the ride beside that, but it was definitely the cherry on top. Beast has been my favorite coaster since I was a kid and has one of the best first hill views in the world. Love the ride even if it's not the most thrilling by modern standards.
Love seeing skyrush and Nitro on here. Both rank in my top 25. Nitros helix is AWESOME, but skyrush still feels like a very polarizing coaster even after the updated restraints for some 😅
Good video, Chris! It's always nice when we give rides another chance. I can say Tennessee Tornado increased in my rankings when I rode it again in 2021. I also think Runaway Mine Train at Great Adventure is definitely underrated. I thought it was lots of fun, especially going out over the lake.
Thunderhead blew my mind this year! In 2021 it had a violent disagreement with me. In 2024, it was so consistently smooth, cramming great pops of floater all around its layout that I could now enjoy without phasing out the jackhammering. It made a serious case for number 1 in the park for me.
I love Wild Eagle. It was my first wing coaster. I will say that Gatekeeper beats it, but it's still a great coaster. Thunderhead is the wildest woodie I have ever been on. Pantheon is number 3 on my coaster list. Number 2 if you count only coasters that are still around. I used to love Vortex, but since I've gotten older, I don't like it as much. Still not the worst coaster I'ver ever been on though. Far from the worst! 😂 The Beast was amazing in my opinion! One of my favorite wooden coasters I've ever been on. I'm a front rider on all coasters, so that's what I'm basing my ranks from.
I was wondering if the Beast was going to shoot up your rankings, but I didn’t think it would be the top mover. I’m glad Kings Island is continuing to take care and improve it through the years. It’s still trimmed too much, imo. I think they do trim it less for night rides.
the main coaster for me that shot up in my rankings this year was Wicked Cyclone. I hadn't ridden it in a while, and then I re-experienced the pure insanity of it!
Just gonna go ahead and say it, Thunderhead is better than Lightning Rod at Dollywood now, and it's not even close. Thunderhead was truly a masterpiece one more when I marathoned it in September, so many amazing floater and was truly hauling the entire time. When GCI gets it right, it's truly special. Can't necessarily agree with Runaway Mine Train since that's honestly in my bottom 5 coasters (probably partly because it's not tall people welcoming so it just hurt the entire time) but glad ya enjoyed it!
TOTALLY agree about Thunderhead. I rode both Thunderhead and Lightning Rod (launched) in late 2021, and believed Thunderhead was better even back then! It's that coaster's tight, relentless pacing and long layout that just really sealed the deal for me!
I’d also give it to Thunderhead personally, I had no expectations for it when I first went to Dollywood back in April, and it absolutely blew me the hell away and I rode it 4 times in a row thanks to TimeSaver. LR is still amazing and also had me getting right back in line, but I knew what I was getting into with it, and it sadly doesn’t have the launch anymore to boot
Only been to Kentucky Kingdom one time but Storm Chaser is a good ride. A bit short but a good ride and the line was pretty short for it when I was there. Not as good as Blue Lightning but better than any other coaster there by a large margin.
Awesome list. Mine was easily Magnum XL 200. Didn't even like it the first time I rode it like 10 years ago. It blew me away this summer. Loved it. Not sure why I hated it the first time. Just got a bad ride I guess. Beast is my number 1 at Kings Island so loved that selection. It felt like an unhinged, wild ride when I rode it this summer for the first time. Lastly, (hot take, maybe) Adventure Express > Runaway Mine Train. I haven't ridden the one you said was #1 in the video, but AE was so much fun. #6 in the park. I almost put it ahead of Banshee. But RMT is a very good Mine train.
I can't make a video like this yet. Perhaps the best of 2024 for me coaster wise is still ahead of me. I'm currently sitting at 399 credits, if my contract is renewed on Friday (seems more than likely) I will be celebrating with my 400th credit, and I'll go with Matterhorn because it's an ACE landmark (the most worthy coaster in California that I haven't ridden as of now, even if you factor in Flash Vertical Velosity). Even if I was supposed to get it in August and that didn't happen due to a sudden change in plans.
Skyrush is actually one that shot far down my list. It did seem rougher, and I actually find the new lap bars more painful than the old ones. Leg crushing doesn't hurt me at all, but the new lap bars put pressure on my groin instead. Plus, the old restraints allowed for a more open & out of control feeling. Skyrush went from top 20 to out of my top 50. The most significant one that shot up my list would be El Toro, as it went from out of my top 20 to easily my favorite woodie & favorite Intamin. Other big moves up my list in no particular order: Raging Bull X Flight Storm Runner (almost my favorite at the park) Thunderbolt at SFNE (new # 3 at the park) Comet at Great Escape (I forgot how good it is) Predator at Darien Lake (so much better with the titan track)
Even at my home park my opinions change all the time. X-Flight moved back up on my list, Viper moved up a bit, and since I got to ride both sides of American Eagle on the same day for the first time, I realized that they are two completely different rides. The red side is amazing, while the blue side has a couple good moments but is otherwise lackluster. In the past I usually ranked whichever one I rode last ahead of the other, but the red side is something like 10-15 spots ahead of the blue side on my list
I worked at KK this summer, storm chaser was running very slow to start the season, then we switched out wheels and it was hauling the rest of the season
According to Chris from ACN, the reason the bottom of the first drop rattles on Scream is due to them dropping the track piece from about 15 ft during construction in 2003, and the park decided to fix it on site instead of sending it back to the fabrication factory.
Storm Chaser seems to be affected a lot by the weather. People who've ridden on a warm day absolutely rave about it, but who rode on a cold day doesn't get the hype. Most coasters in general are not running well on cold days, but somehow Storm Chaser especially changes a lot.
Got my first ride on Scream last week and was very, very pleasantly surprised given the fact that I've heard nothing but people clowning on that ride for years. That said, parking lot setting does not do it any favors 😆
Of course two years after I move away from Hershey they make Skyrush truly elite. I guess at least I was among its fans and got to take advantage of the lack of lines 2020-2022? (Record for me was 11 laps without leaving the station on a cold November Sunday evening for its final rides of 2020)
I always loved Pantheon at Busch Gardens. Every time I ride it, that backwards launch over the little airtime hill always catches me off guard. It’s a great ride for what it is
I was amazed how intense Runaway Mine Train was. Definitely the best one I've ridden. Hydra sucked. Good elements but too rough. Storm Chaser was my first RMC and I love it. My first ride on Skyrush was great. But I got a wing seat on the second ride, and it rattled my brain. Nitro has an awesome layout. I didn't care for The Beast the first time I rode it back in 2011. But I returned last year and I freaking love it now.
I just revisited SFMM this weekend, and the two coasters that shot up for me were riddler and viper. I always loved viper and found it underrated, but it was even better on this trip. It's very much so shot up my rankings. As for riddler, I really hated it last year when I first rode it. It was stupid intense and I didn't know how to brace myself for those elements. This year, I found a method, and now it's the best standup I've ridden by far. That layout is phenomenal. I will say, it was a tad rougher than I remember, but that didn't take away from the ride.
Batwing and Nighthawk both jumped in my rankings this year. Batwing for the reason you did. I've always had nighthawk near the bottom because it was almost never worth riding. Every time I go on a home park run, I skip Nighthawk because it never seems to have less than a 40 minute wait. I'd get off the ride nitpicking it because I had to wait that long for it. However, I went on a random Friday this fall and it was a walk-on. After 3 laps, I started appreciating it and its quirks. I am now neutral about it sticking around.
man i can dream, it's been my mission to ride over 300 coasters and i haven't even reached 100 yet, im still at 83. i envy guys like you Chris. you don't know how good you got it , i still can't believe i only have 83 credits . i literally dream of riding them but something comes up , it baffles me how you can afford to ride all these. ever thought of doing like a special giveaways so you can make one of the unfortunates dream come true. i'd work so hard just to make it out to great Adventure i was going to ride KA in August but unfortunately stuff came up and so i'll never got to go and will never be able to ride KA and GL.
Where do you live? Sometimes it's a matter of being too far away from parks and not money. I grew up in Maryland in the 90s so I had 7 major growing and rapidly expanding parks within a 3 hour drive of my house, plus several large parks by the Atlantic Ocean in Maryland and New Jersey. The mid Atlantic is the best place to live in the country for sheer volume and number of roller coasters, Maryland in particular because it is sandwiched between New Jersey Pennsylvania and Virginia and not too far from New York Ohio and New England. If you don't believe me add up the number of roller coasters on RCDB from Maine to Virginia out to Ohio and there are easily several hundred within a day's drive of where I grew up. That's not true anywhere else in the country even if you have the money to visit. You have to put in a lot more time and effort and planning even with the money to get to the parks like Chris's multi week trips from Tulsa to the East Coast to visit all the parks that I have spent most of my life until the past few years a day or a half day drive or even less to travel to and visit. Cost is only part of it, logistics and proximity are a big part as well even when one can afford it. I have been very blessed to have visited as many water parks and amusement parks as I have visited in my 44+ years of life so far. God willing my next big trip and multi park visit is July 2025 coaster crew Japan. I pray from my mouth to God's ears! 😁
Nemesis Inferno. First couple of times I rode it I couldn’t help but compare it to the original Nemesis, this time going in I managed to put that out of my head and had a great time (and of course watched that episode of The Inbetweeners when I got back to the hotel).
... So... I wasn't supposed to be a person who thought SkyRush was anything but overrated. But after my rides a couple months ago with the new refresh, I've definitely been converted! I'm still not a fan of the overly-extreme airtime, but the coaster has great momentum all the way through. And I was able to enjoy my rides comfortably, even on wing-seats! It's amazing what all simply changing the restraints can do! Also, they did a great job leaning into the new "Fly First Class" theme in the station. The new lighting and sound effects really enhance the atmosphere and feeling of anticipation!
I love The Beast so much because for me it's like if you put a nice scenic railway like an antique train in the middle of 2 crazy rides (the start and the helix finalie which is insane like you said). also yes Ragin' Cajun and Pantheon are both also goated. honestly it's a bit of a toss up for me between velocicoaster and Pantheon. I feel like they're 2 halfs of the same coin, like Panthon is the big / graceful version and Velocicoaster is the small / nimble version of the same ride. backwards speed hill is crazy good on Pantheon and Mosasaurus Roll is crazy good on Velocicoaster
On the Beast: I got my last ride back in 2023 and I felt the ride was great….until the Helix. For some reason the helix beat me up. But I enjoyed the rest of it and it was a point of pride having lost the weight I had. I didn’t get to ride it in 2024 and that’s ok, but hopefully I will get another ride and hopefully this ride, which was opened the year I was born (16 days after may I add), will redeem itself. I can only hope.
5.5 years of working with steel coasters will tell me that train maintenence is key. We know that is train is do for some love when it would rattle you brain out, proving you wrong when it got some love and making it smooth again. And every train has it persenalety. No mater what, on my coaster train 1 would always rattle and train 2 was smooth. No mater who would do the maintence, the park or the manefacturer, the best machanic or not. Train 1 always had a rattle and 2 was smooth
They had a fog machine running at the bottom of the second drop of The Beast when I rode it in October. Not sure if it was a permanent thing or if they only had it there for the Halloween season, but it was a nice little touch.
Some rides that shot up for me are Magnum XL 200 at Cedar Point, Poltergeist and Superman: Krypton Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Steel Eel at SeaWorld San Antonio, X2 and Tatsu at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Ghost Rider and Silver Bullet at Knott's Berry Farm.
Yeah. I've always felt Wild Eagle and Scream were far better than they were given credit for. Glad to see the Lagoon representation too :-) Roller Coaster is indeed fun, and even better now that it has Millennium Flyer trains! Spider is good too, although for me Ride to Happiness is tops for spinners.
Happy to see The Beast at #1 !!! A coaster I only started riding two years ago but I absolutely love it. That park just has such a stacked line up that The Beast could easily be someone's #5 coaster in the park. For some it's #1. For me it's #3. Great coaster at a great park!
@@vegasstafford9061Yup! #5 for me behind Mystic Timbers and the 3 B&Ms, and it's not even close for me because those 4 are so much smoother than beast even after the massive 2022 retrack/rebuild.
Rode 308 different coasters this year. Been on 179 of them before. Here are ones that moved up in my rankings. Taron (phantasialand) Kondaa (Walibi Belgium) Mako (sea world Orlando) Wodan (Europa park) Montu (Busch gardens Tampa) Thunderhead (Dollywood) Prowler (worlds of fun) Mamba (worlds of fun) Joris en de draak (Efteling) Colorado adventure (phantasialand) Gemini ( cedar point) Nitro ( six flags great adventure ) Beast (kings island) Lost coaster (Indians beach) Eurosat can can coaster (Europa park) Runaway mountain (six flags over Texas) Joker’s jinx (six flags America) Revenge of the mummy (us Florida) Calamity mine (Walibi Belgium) Runaway mine train (six flags great adventure) We have some overlap for sure.
Kind of funny that you had scream on this list because for me it shot down in my rankings I got a really good ride in 2023 but I just ride it 3 weeks ago and it was really rough
Crazy how much coasters can vary riding them on different days! Makes you wonder if there are rides you don’t like because you just got one bad ride on it
Only got one trip to Six Flags Great Adventure this year. The only ride that really shot up was the Jersey Devil coaster. Last time I went, it was new and they were still figuring it out. And it may have been running slow. I was also in a very weird headspace at the time. So I didn't really enjoy it. This time though it was much more fun. It felt faster and I was in a better mood. So I was able to enjoy it more. Is it fantastic? Not really. But it was much better than I initially gave it credit for.
I am a local at Great Adventure. Never understood what the Nitro hype was about. I never got any real airtime on the first two hills and not much on that finale. I could ride it on a hot night with a full train and over an inch of room and my but doesn’t go up much. In my opinion, Goliath at SFOG is the ride people swear Nitro is, while it’s more like Apollo’s Chariot.
Grizzly at Kings Dominion moved up on my list. It was on my worst list in 2019. Thunder Striker also moved way up. In 2022, it was meh. It is now my second favorite B&M Hyper. Copperhead Strike moved up as well. I also rerode Vortex and had a similar experience.
Skyrush wasn’t rough for me, the layout just isn’t that great, I’m still not really a fan. But all the six flags America stuff was really good for me this year, ragun spins sooo much. Also nitro is AMAZING
I went on the beast in 2017 and got a massive headache. I went again in 2023 and I got the ride of my life…in the middle of the day. Why? Because my left ring finger nearly got the top sliced off. Luckily, only the nail suffered the damage and I was bleeding like crazy. It hurt like hell but I was laughing so much I completely ignored it until an hour later when it t really got bad. Yep. The beast nearly sent me to the ER. Good times
Not exactly a controversial thought here, but I think the “upgrade” to Skyrush was a huge downgrade. The laterals are all but gone, and it just doesn’t feel as intense anymore. It’s sad to me, it was my number one and a major contributor to me being a hardcore enthusiast. I really haven’t been much into roller coasters this year…
I love that you have Pantheon on here. You’re one of the few coaster tubers I watch who seems to love it as much as I do. Absolutely stupid good 👏🏻
Pantheon is SO GOOD! Imagine how much cooler it would have been if it got the theming it deserves!
No way it's coaster dash also! Now we need ElToroRyan and coaster studios
Having velicicoaster here just makes it look awful. Esp with no theming
Sometimes re-rides can change the way you look at a ride completely. That’s why I always go back on worse rides when I’m back at a park
I hated saw the ride at Thorpe park gonna go back on it in April maybe
Well I wish I could’ve re-ride scorpion because of how sad everyone it’s gone. But now I can’t…
@@LSM_rocket50 I'm same with kingda ka
Even at my home park I do this all the time. X flight was bad for two consecutive rides and now last time I rode it I thought it was good.
So glad you finally got your night ride on the legendary Beast. ❤
Your next Beast goal needs to be riding it during the Haunt! It is next level! All the fog from the park, dark woods, pitch black tunnels…now that’s a religious experience! Might be bias bc KI is my home park 😂
0:23 I hate when Griffon has a rollback
Roll....up
He’s got a point @Yes2snake
For some reason this clip legitimately scared me
@@AirtimeThrillsfruit rollup?
"OK, who put the extra-strong bungee cords on a dive coaster?!"
Wild Eagle: Dollywood is my home park. Best seats are the back two rows OR the outside seat in the right side of row 1.
That outside seat is legitimately awesome and when the coaster gets low to the ground, you get some kind of near miss moments that you normally miss out on.
Glad to see you enjoyed Thunderhead. I got seven back row night rides on it last year during ACE CoasterCon, and it was astoundingly good.
I went to Dollywood for the first time back in April, and Thunderhead blew me away. I had TimeSaver so I rode it 3 or 4 times in a row, it was that freaking good
I rode 40 new coasters but no rerides this year, so I'll say a few things about some of these:
I really like Galaxy Spin, so Rajun Cajun looks awesome
14 - I'm a big Nighthawk fan, so I really want to ride Batwing
12 - Need to reride Wild Eagle now that I've been on GateKeeper and Thunderhead
10 - Thunderhead is great!
8 - Rode Vortex once and it was actually alright. Not great, but not nearly as bad as people say. I did ride the front, so that might have something to do with it
7 - Nitro looks like Goliath and I'm really excited to ride this someday!
4 - Rode Storm Chaser this summer and it wasn't as powerful as people say, but it was still a lot of fun. Great airtime!
3 - Never rode the original trains on SkyRush, but these lap bars actually kind of hurt me, so I can't imagine what they were before. Also, yeah it's really rough. I tried middle seats but I still got rattled to death.
1- The Beast the best the Beast the best the Beast!
Maybe I'll get to visit Dollywood next year and reride some things... or SeaWorld, idk, we'll see
Liking the love you gave to Six Flags America! I just hit up this park for the first time this past summer and had fun! Rode Superman 7 times. Love the first drop and the airtime hill after the first helix!
Love seeing pantheon on here and thanks for not complaining about the theming
Skyrush shot up in my rankings as well! Everything else fell in my rankings because I got 86 credits this year which almost doubled my credit count from last year. Even Steel Vengeance and Fury 325 fell from #1 and #2 respectively to #2 and #3 respectively because Voyage became my new #1. I was so blown away by it, and I haven't even gone to Holiwood nights yet!
Always love videos like this!
My only re-rides this year were my home-park favorites, Yankee Cannonball and Untamed at Canobie. Not much to say about them--the way they ride hasn't changed in several years. They're both fun but not extraordinary. Yankee Cannonball, these days, is unusually well-kept and smooth for a woodie from the 1930s.
Scream is a fantastic night ride. I got lucky and did it on a Fourth of July weekend and the ride op told us we'd get the best view of the fireworks in the park. Fireworks started before we left the station and he held us on the lift hill for a minute or so which was awesome and then the rest of the ride lit by the fireworks was pretty magical. I love the ride beside that, but it was definitely the cherry on top.
Beast has been my favorite coaster since I was a kid and has one of the best first hill views in the world. Love the ride even if it's not the most thrilling by modern standards.
Love seeing skyrush and Nitro on here. Both rank in my top 25. Nitros helix is AWESOME, but skyrush still feels like a very polarizing coaster even after the updated restraints for some 😅
Good video, Chris! It's always nice when we give rides another chance. I can say Tennessee Tornado increased in my rankings when I rode it again in 2021. I also think Runaway Mine Train at Great Adventure is definitely underrated. I thought it was lots of fun, especially going out over the lake.
Thunderhead blew my mind this year! In 2021 it had a violent disagreement with me. In 2024, it was so consistently smooth, cramming great pops of floater all around its layout that I could now enjoy without phasing out the jackhammering. It made a serious case for number 1 in the park for me.
Nitro was my first hyper and yeah gotta agree it was running fantastically this year
I love Wild Eagle. It was my first wing coaster. I will say that Gatekeeper beats it, but it's still a great coaster. Thunderhead is the wildest woodie I have ever been on. Pantheon is number 3 on my coaster list. Number 2 if you count only coasters that are still around. I used to love Vortex, but since I've gotten older, I don't like it as much. Still not the worst coaster I'ver ever been on though. Far from the worst! 😂 The Beast was amazing in my opinion! One of my favorite wooden coasters I've ever been on. I'm a front rider on all coasters, so that's what I'm basing my ranks from.
I was wondering if the Beast was going to shoot up your rankings, but I didn’t think it would be the top mover. I’m glad Kings Island is continuing to take care and improve it through the years. It’s still trimmed too much, imo. I think they do trim it less for night rides.
Interesting, i dont recall if the trims were lighter at night
For me was scorpion at Busch gardens Tampa before it closed forces were great and it was way smoother than my rides a couple years ago.
Great video! Happy to see the Beast love! I really enjoyed watching this!
the main coaster for me that shot up in my rankings this year was Wicked Cyclone. I hadn't ridden it in a while, and then I re-experienced the pure insanity of it!
my #1! I came off of it the first time just saying "Alan Schilke is a madman"
@ he is in fact the greatest madman to ever exist. SteVe is my #1 tho. Got my family to drive all 13 hours to cedar point for coastermania 2024
As someone who had SFA as their home park for 20+ years. I can confirm that's a sleeper hit. Easily my favorite spinner (I've ridden)
Just gonna go ahead and say it, Thunderhead is better than Lightning Rod at Dollywood now, and it's not even close. Thunderhead was truly a masterpiece one more when I marathoned it in September, so many amazing floater and was truly hauling the entire time. When GCI gets it right, it's truly special.
Can't necessarily agree with Runaway Mine Train since that's honestly in my bottom 5 coasters (probably partly because it's not tall people welcoming so it just hurt the entire time) but glad ya enjoyed it!
TOTALLY agree about Thunderhead. I rode both Thunderhead and Lightning Rod (launched) in late 2021, and believed Thunderhead was better even back then! It's that coaster's tight, relentless pacing and long layout that just really sealed the deal for me!
Too bad about Runaway Mine Train. Even got 2 rides to confirm it was awesome
I’d also give it to Thunderhead personally, I had no expectations for it when I first went to Dollywood back in April, and it absolutely blew me the hell away and I rode it 4 times in a row thanks to TimeSaver. LR is still amazing and also had me getting right back in line, but I knew what I was getting into with it, and it sadly doesn’t have the launch anymore to boot
Only been to Kentucky Kingdom one time but Storm Chaser is a good ride. A bit short but a good ride and the line was pretty short for it when I was there. Not as good as Blue Lightning but better than any other coaster there by a large margin.
Interesting that you had Superman as smoother this year, as I felt the opposite. Ragin Cajun though, I was flabbergasted how crazy that spin goes.
Awesome list. Mine was easily Magnum XL 200. Didn't even like it the first time I rode it like 10 years ago. It blew me away this summer. Loved it. Not sure why I hated it the first time. Just got a bad ride I guess.
Beast is my number 1 at Kings Island so loved that selection. It felt like an unhinged, wild ride when I rode it this summer for the first time.
Lastly, (hot take, maybe) Adventure Express > Runaway Mine Train. I haven't ridden the one you said was #1 in the video, but AE was so much fun. #6 in the park. I almost put it ahead of Banshee. But RMT is a very good Mine train.
Adventure express is definitely a quality mine train, it just punches you in the kidneys too much
Magnum is all about what row you sit in. The middle row of the cars are always the smoothest.
I can't make a video like this yet. Perhaps the best of 2024 for me coaster wise is still ahead of me. I'm currently sitting at 399 credits, if my contract is renewed on Friday (seems more than likely) I will be celebrating with my 400th credit, and I'll go with Matterhorn because it's an ACE landmark (the most worthy coaster in California that I haven't ridden as of now, even if you factor in Flash Vertical Velosity). Even if I was supposed to get it in August and that didn't happen due to a sudden change in plans.
Huge Nitro Stan here. Very happy to see it getting the recognition it deserves for being such an intense ride (specifically the helix)
I am also a huge nitro fan! I go on it so many times every year and I love it so much!
Phoenix is a top 5 wooden coaster when you’re riding in the back at night after a hot summer day.
Skyrush is actually one that shot far down my list. It did seem rougher, and I actually find the new lap bars more painful than the old ones. Leg crushing doesn't hurt me at all, but the new lap bars put pressure on my groin instead. Plus, the old restraints allowed for a more open & out of control feeling. Skyrush went from top 20 to out of my top 50.
The most significant one that shot up my list would be El Toro, as it went from out of my top 20 to easily my favorite woodie & favorite Intamin. Other big moves up my list in no particular order:
Raging Bull
X Flight
Storm Runner (almost my favorite at the park)
Thunderbolt at SFNE (new # 3 at the park)
Comet at Great Escape (I forgot how good it is)
Predator at Darien Lake (so much better with the titan track)
Even at my home park my opinions change all the time. X-Flight moved back up on my list, Viper moved up a bit, and since I got to ride both sides of American Eagle on the same day for the first time, I realized that they are two completely different rides. The red side is amazing, while the blue side has a couple good moments but is otherwise lackluster. In the past I usually ranked whichever one I rode last ahead of the other, but the red side is something like 10-15 spots ahead of the blue side on my list
I worked at KK this summer, storm chaser was running very slow to start the season, then we switched out wheels and it was hauling the rest of the season
According to Chris from ACN, the reason the bottom of the first drop rattles on Scream is due to them dropping the track piece from about 15 ft during construction in 2003, and the park decided to fix it on site instead of sending it back to the fabrication factory.
Surprised not to see Griffon get a mention, if only because of its unexpected fall (or, should I say, dive) off the charts last year.
Storm Chaser seems to be affected a lot by the weather. People who've ridden on a warm day absolutely rave about it, but who rode on a cold day doesn't get the hype. Most coasters in general are not running well on cold days, but somehow Storm Chaser especially changes a lot.
Maverick for me! I jumped from 5’1-5’8. DANG THAR RIDE!👑
#7-#1
Got my first ride on Scream last week and was very, very pleasantly surprised given the fact that I've heard nothing but people clowning on that ride for years. That said, parking lot setting does not do it any favors 😆
The best time of year is when Chris starts to recap over the season.
You had positive things to say about Scream AND Skyrush? Who are you and what did you do to Chris?
He’s still in Australia and is a professional cricket player.
@ The Tom Brady of cricket
@@Fury325Fan Real
This is too funny😅
@@kimjones4338i could so play cricket
I got 3 night rain rides on The Beast back in June earlier this year!
Of course two years after I move away from Hershey they make Skyrush truly elite.
I guess at least I was among its fans and got to take advantage of the lack of lines 2020-2022? (Record for me was 11 laps without leaving the station on a cold November Sunday evening for its final rides of 2020)
I always loved Pantheon at Busch Gardens. Every time I ride it, that backwards launch over the little airtime hill always catches me off guard. It’s a great ride for what it is
I was amazed how intense Runaway Mine Train was. Definitely the best one I've ridden. Hydra sucked. Good elements but too rough. Storm Chaser was my first RMC and I love it. My first ride on Skyrush was great. But I got a wing seat on the second ride, and it rattled my brain. Nitro has an awesome layout. I didn't care for The Beast the first time I rode it back in 2011. But I returned last year and I freaking love it now.
Wild Eagle is my guilty pleasure so to see it on this list makes me so happy lmao it’s in my top 3 but to be fair I only have around 30ish credits
I just revisited SFMM this weekend, and the two coasters that shot up for me were riddler and viper. I always loved viper and found it underrated, but it was even better on this trip. It's very much so shot up my rankings. As for riddler, I really hated it last year when I first rode it. It was stupid intense and I didn't know how to brace myself for those elements. This year, I found a method, and now it's the best standup I've ridden by far. That layout is phenomenal. I will say, it was a tad rougher than I remember, but that didn't take away from the ride.
I LOVE your videos. Need more Amy on trains.
A fantastic list. Finally the Skyrush hate crush might be coming to an end!!!
Prairie Screamer proofs that more small parks should invest in these Hi-Milers.
Do they still make these? They should
Batwing and Nighthawk both jumped in my rankings this year. Batwing for the reason you did.
I've always had nighthawk near the bottom because it was almost never worth riding. Every time I go on a home park run, I skip Nighthawk because it never seems to have less than a 40 minute wait. I'd get off the ride nitpicking it because I had to wait that long for it. However, I went on a random Friday this fall and it was a walk-on. After 3 laps, I started appreciating it and its quirks. I am now neutral about it sticking around.
6:30 Wait till you try Toutatis!
man i can dream, it's been my mission to ride over 300 coasters and i haven't even reached 100 yet, im still at 83. i envy guys like you Chris. you don't know how good you got it , i still can't believe i only have 83 credits . i literally dream of riding them but something comes up , it baffles me how you can afford to ride all these. ever thought of doing like a special giveaways so you can make one of the unfortunates dream come true. i'd work so hard just to make it out to great Adventure i was going to ride KA in August but unfortunately stuff came up and so i'll never got to go and will never be able to ride KA and GL.
Where do you live? Sometimes it's a matter of being too far away from parks and not money. I grew up in Maryland in the 90s so I had 7 major growing and rapidly expanding parks within a 3 hour drive of my house, plus several large parks by the Atlantic Ocean in Maryland and New Jersey. The mid Atlantic is the best place to live in the country for sheer volume and number of roller coasters, Maryland in particular because it is sandwiched between New Jersey Pennsylvania and Virginia and not too far from New York Ohio and New England. If you don't believe me add up the number of roller coasters on RCDB from Maine to Virginia out to Ohio and there are easily several hundred within a day's drive of where I grew up. That's not true anywhere else in the country even if you have the money to visit. You have to put in a lot more time and effort and planning even with the money to get to the parks like Chris's multi week trips from Tulsa to the East Coast to visit all the parks that I have spent most of my life until the past few years a day or a half day drive or even less to travel to and visit. Cost is only part of it, logistics and proximity are a big part as well even when one can afford it. I have been very blessed to have visited as many water parks and amusement parks as I have visited in my 44+ years of life so far. God willing my next big trip and multi park visit is July 2025 coaster crew Japan. I pray from my mouth to God's ears! 😁
Nemesis Inferno. First couple of times I rode it I couldn’t help but compare it to the original Nemesis, this time going in I managed to put that out of my head and had a great time (and of course watched that episode of The Inbetweeners when I got back to the hotel).
I'm happy to see this! I always enjoy Inferno when I go on it, and am often sad to see the hate it gets as I genuinely think it's a good ride!
... So... I wasn't supposed to be a person who thought SkyRush was anything but overrated. But after my rides a couple months ago with the new refresh, I've definitely been converted! I'm still not a fan of the overly-extreme airtime, but the coaster has great momentum all the way through. And I was able to enjoy my rides comfortably, even on wing-seats! It's amazing what all simply changing the restraints can do!
Also, they did a great job leaning into the new "Fly First Class" theme in the station. The new lighting and sound effects really enhance the atmosphere and feeling of anticipation!
I love The Beast so much because for me it's like if you put a nice scenic railway like an antique train in the middle of 2 crazy rides (the start and the helix finalie which is insane like you said). also yes Ragin' Cajun and Pantheon are both also goated. honestly it's a bit of a toss up for me between velocicoaster and Pantheon. I feel like they're 2 halfs of the same coin, like Panthon is the big / graceful version and Velocicoaster is the small / nimble version of the same ride. backwards speed hill is crazy good on Pantheon and Mosasaurus Roll is crazy good on Velocicoaster
On the Beast:
I got my last ride back in 2023 and I felt the ride was great….until the Helix. For some reason the helix beat me up. But I enjoyed the rest of it and it was a point of pride having lost the weight I had. I didn’t get to ride it in 2024 and that’s ok, but hopefully I will get another ride and hopefully this ride, which was opened the year I was born (16 days after may I add), will redeem itself. I can only hope.
5.5 years of working with steel coasters will tell me that train maintenence is key. We know that is train is do for some love when it would rattle you brain out, proving you wrong when it got some love and making it smooth again. And every train has it persenalety. No mater what, on my coaster train 1 would always rattle and train 2 was smooth. No mater who would do the maintence, the park or the manefacturer, the best machanic or not. Train 1 always had a rattle and 2 was smooth
The Beast is a perfect ride! The respect is finally here!
They had a fog machine running at the bottom of the second drop of The Beast when I rode it in October. Not sure if it was a permanent thing or if they only had it there for the Halloween season, but it was a nice little touch.
Some rides that shot up for me are Magnum XL 200 at Cedar Point, Poltergeist and Superman: Krypton Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Steel Eel at SeaWorld San Antonio, X2 and Tatsu at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Ghost Rider and Silver Bullet at Knott's Berry Farm.
Yeah. I've always felt Wild Eagle and Scream were far better than they were given credit for. Glad to see the Lagoon representation too :-) Roller Coaster is indeed fun, and even better now that it has Millennium Flyer trains! Spider is good too, although for me Ride to Happiness is tops for spinners.
I rode Hydra this year and liked it too! Glad to know I'm not nuts. lol.
YAS!!! NEW CONTENT!!!
Happy to see The Beast at #1 !!! A coaster I only started riding two years ago but I absolutely love it. That park just has such a stacked line up that The Beast could easily be someone's #5 coaster in the park. For some it's #1. For me it's #3. Great coaster at a great park!
@@vegasstafford9061Yup! #5 for me behind Mystic Timbers and the 3 B&Ms, and it's not even close for me because those 4 are so much smoother than beast even after the massive 2022 retrack/rebuild.
KI was my home park growing up, so The Beast holds a special place in my heart. I lone for an opportunity to ride it without trim brakes just once.
Prowler was my big winner this year and shot back into my top 25. The layout is just so forceful and every airtime hill hits on that thing!
Ive still never gotten a great ride on that
@AirtimeThrills it was a hot day in June when I went but that thing was flying, my second favorite GCI now only behind Goldstriker
Rode 308 different coasters this year. Been on 179 of them before. Here are ones that moved up in my rankings.
Taron (phantasialand)
Kondaa (Walibi Belgium)
Mako (sea world Orlando)
Wodan (Europa park)
Montu (Busch gardens Tampa)
Thunderhead (Dollywood)
Prowler (worlds of fun)
Mamba (worlds of fun)
Joris en de draak (Efteling)
Colorado adventure (phantasialand)
Gemini ( cedar point)
Nitro ( six flags great adventure )
Beast (kings island)
Lost coaster (Indians beach)
Eurosat can can coaster (Europa park)
Runaway mountain (six flags over Texas)
Joker’s jinx (six flags America)
Revenge of the mummy (us Florida)
Calamity mine (Walibi Belgium)
Runaway mine train (six flags great adventure)
We have some overlap for sure.
Yesss team Runaway Mine Train
YAY FOR THE MUMMY FLORIDIAN HERE
Nitro is the most underrated night ride ever. It is totally pitch black
Kind of funny that you had scream on this list because for me it shot down in my rankings I got a really good ride in 2023 but I just ride it 3 weeks ago and it was really rough
The comment of the video..."It makes you wonder WHO designed it...and if they're qualified for the job" (Prairie Screamer). 😅😂
An Airtime Thrills video with Skyrush in the thumbnail? Clicked it as soon as I saw it
Crazy how much coasters can vary riding them on different days! Makes you wonder if there are rides you don’t like because you just got one bad ride on it
Everyone..have a wonderful day..blessings and much love to you all ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Bro I rode Hydra in 2019 and it KILLED my head. Wonder if maintenance fixed anything? Runaway Train is a classic.
Only got one trip to Six Flags Great Adventure this year. The only ride that really shot up was the Jersey Devil coaster. Last time I went, it was new and they were still figuring it out. And it may have been running slow. I was also in a very weird headspace at the time. So I didn't really enjoy it.
This time though it was much more fun. It felt faster and I was in a better mood. So I was able to enjoy it more. Is it fantastic? Not really. But it was much better than I initially gave it credit for.
JDC didnt move the needle much for me and i gave it a real decent shake this year
So proud of my Beast
Airtime thrills video with a skyrush in thumbnail, instant click
SKYRUSH ON THUMBNAIL AHHHHHHHHHHH
I am a local at Great Adventure. Never understood what the Nitro hype was about. I never got any real airtime on the first two hills and not much on that finale. I could ride it on a hot night with a full train and over an inch of room and my but doesn’t go up much. In my opinion, Goliath at SFOG is the ride people swear Nitro is, while it’s more like Apollo’s Chariot.
Nitro proved it was still good this year. Beforehand i wasnt so sure
Here for the Nitro love!
Viper at sfgam went from being janky and ok airtime, to great airtime and mostly smooth
Depends where you sit for sure
Grizzly at Kings Dominion moved up on my list. It was on my worst list in 2019. Thunder Striker also moved way up. In 2022, it was meh. It is now my second favorite B&M Hyper. Copperhead Strike moved up as well. I also rerode Vortex and had a similar experience.
Im excited for grizzly next year
I def agree on skyrush. Grizzly last year went from awful to amazing with its retrack
Yeah, I don't remember the shin guards most of the ride either. It was fine, could take Batwing over it depending on the day
Skyrush wasn’t rough for me, the layout just isn’t that great, I’m still not really a fan. But all the six flags America stuff was really good for me this year, ragun spins sooo much. Also nitro is AMAZING
I got my first kiss on The Beast 😏🤣 we kissed on the first lift hill, because everything else was BUMPY. It’s gotten a lot smoother since 2011!
Aww, that’s adorable
You could actually start a family going up that slow lift hill. 😄
@pipepicasso8112 hahaha wow.
@@pipepicasso8112Same thing with the Bat!!! The lift hill is longer than the rest of the ride!!!
I would love to go across the country and ride enough rides to have a too 25 but ive only collected i think 18 credits lol
Gracious
What coaster show down in your rankings?
Come back Thursday
@@AirtimeThrills can’t wait
Rare airtime thrills not hating skyrush moment
Wow... lots of Six Flags America love!! color me surprised!
SFA really shocked me this year
At the beggining, why is griffon going backwards?
5:14 Thunderhead is the best head.
I went on the beast in 2017 and got a massive headache. I went again in 2023 and I got the ride of my life…in the middle of the day. Why? Because my left ring finger nearly got the top sliced off. Luckily, only the nail suffered the damage and I was bleeding like crazy. It hurt like hell but I was laughing so much I completely ignored it until an hour later when it t really got bad. Yep. The beast nearly sent me to the ER. Good times
Thats intense
Is FanDuel taking odds on Lightning Rod making #1 on the "Shot Down" rankings?
Where is boardwalk bullet?!?! 😞
It didnt move much for me honestly
@@AirtimeThrills I hope it’s somewhere in the top 100 🙏
Not exactly a controversial thought here, but I think the “upgrade” to Skyrush was a huge downgrade. The laterals are all but gone, and it just doesn’t feel as intense anymore. It’s sad to me, it was my number one and a major contributor to me being a hardcore enthusiast. I really haven’t been much into roller coasters this year…
Shows how moody rollercoasters can be as during my trip to Dollywood this year, Thunderhead was a jackhammer-fest.
That's super surprising
Third row is the best on Phoenix, not back. Give it a shot next time and you may finally be fully converted.
When are you going to sfot