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Best Wooden Roller Coasters of 2009
The Voyage Reigns Supreme
The Voyage (Holiday World, Indiana) reclaimed its spot as the favorite roller coaster in this year’s Internet Coaster Poll. Last year it was dethroned by then newcomer T Express (Everland, South Korea). T Express slipped to third with El Toro and The Voyage battling it out for the top spot. I love both El Toro and The Voyage for different reasons and I have no problem with either of those rides sitting at the top in any order. Here’s the top ten wooden roller coasters along with their places in last year’s poll:2009 Top Ten Best Wooden Roller Coasters
1 The Voyage at Holiday World (Indiana) Gravity Group (2nd)
2 El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure (New Jersey) Intamin (3rd)
3 T Express at Everland(Korea) Intamin (1st)
4 Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce (Connecticut) CCI (4th)
5 Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer (Pennsylvania) Gravity Group (9th)
6 Prowler at Worlds of Fun (Missouri) GCI (New)
7 Balder at Liseberg (Sweden) Intamin (5th)
8 Phoenix at Knoebels (Pennsylvania) Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (6th)
9 Fireball at Happy Valley (China) GCI (New)
10 Aska at Nara Dreamland(Japan) Intamin (8th)Complete 2009 wooden roller coaster poll results with all 181 coasters.
Check out this on-ride video of The Voyage at Holiday World. I find the music a little hard to stomach, but the video itself is excellent!:
Intamin Pre-fabs For the Win (Again)!
As was the case in last year’s poll, Intamin pre-fabricated woodies continue to be well-received as there are four in the top ten. Their so smooth that they resemble riding a steel coaster. An utlra-smooth woodie is controversial for some, but their popularity overall seems pretty undeniable. I recommend that anyone in America make their way to Six Flags Great Adventure to ride the only Intamin pre-fab in the States: El Toro . It offers an amazingly smooth and thrilling ride with more airtime than you’d think would be possible. For that reason it’s at number 2 in my Top Ten Coasters.Prowler Leads the Class of ‘09
Worlds of Fun has to be happy with their 2009 woodie Prowler. It already received Best New Ride of the Year in the Golden Ticket Awards. And now the Great Coasters International terrain coaster boasts an impressive debut of 6th on the Internet Coaster Poll.Other Notable Rankings
China’s first wooden roller coaster Fireball also had a strong debut at 9th. The Gravity Group designed woodie looks like a lot of fun. I just wish it was a few thousand miles closer. Freizeitpark Plohn’s El Toro and Magic Mountain’s new Terminator Salvation debuted at 20th and 22nd respectively.Meanwhile, Ravine Flyer II climbed up from 9th to 5th in its second year. Six Flags St. Louis’ Evel Knievel slipped a spot to 16th after debuting at 15th last year. And, the hidden gem that is Rampage at Alabama Adventure moved up from 24th to 19th. It’s good to know that it’s getting much deserved respect and still delivering great rides at its age.
What’s Your Take?
What do you think of the 2009 Internet Coaster Poll’s Wood Results? Where does your favorite woodie place? Do you agree with the results? Leave a comment below.
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Definatly jealous of all those beautiful woodies you have over the pond, Im guessing Megafobia was the highest rated woodie in the UK, where was that in the list out of interest?
29th.
jjhobo, I thought of some woodies your country can have. We’ve got a few to spare. I’m sure Cedar Fair wouldn’t miss Son of Beast and I thought I read recently that Geauga Lake’s Big Dipper is for sale again. Too bad no one saved Villian. It was decent and it had that unique trick track section. If the rumors are true about Kentucky Kingdom changing to a water park, then there are a few woodies there that may need new homes.
Son of Beast? CC, isn’t that kind of an insult?
Not really. It may sound a little harsh, but the saying is true: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. Maybe another park could redesign/re-profile Son of Beast and make it successful. It just seems unlikely as that would be A LOT of wood to ship.
lets see, ive been on… none of the top ten- surprised thunderhead isn’t up there
Id take any of those woodies, Villan’s trick track section sounds interesting what happens?
Im still holding out for one of those prefab woodies that seem to be getting rave reviews across the world but we’ll see what happens. Its really annoying living in the Uk, alot of coasters that are planned get denied because of height and sound restrictions. A few years back Alton Towers were planning to build a massive out and back woodie that would have featured multiple lift hills and 200ft drops into a ravine, if done right that would have been a definate top 5 woodie that would have brought people from across the world to ride. If only fingers crossed for the future.
It’s a section of track where there’s a slight banking to the left and then to the right. Unfortunately on Villian it was at the bottom of the first drop which didn’t make any sense, but the idea of the element is cool.
The voyage video at the top is my favorite overall coaster video.
It’s one of my favorites too, but only on mute.
I realy like the music.
Same here. I guess it’s a matter of taste.
Blasphemy,CC! Even my guinea pig likes the music!
I’m thinking that I’m in a different (age) demographic than you three. Well, you four including the guinea pig. If I ever get around to my video project you’ll see what kind of music I like.
i thought you said you liked the song; “You can`t go for that”, the remix of “I can`t go for that”, or was it the other way around, anyway, i`m more of a hard rock fan.
And I just realized you are probably about my SON’S age!
who?
speakingof coaster videos, go on youtube and look up Trav101. he madeso,e prettey cool top tens.
I’ve only been on El Toro on that list. I hope to ride Boulder Dash soon. And I hope terminater hits it bigger next year! Go terminator!!!
yeah, the themeing looks realy cool.
I agree about that.
Oh, and I’ve already seen Trav101’s Top 10 lists. They’re some of my favorite top 10 movies I’ve ever watched.