Comments on: Mitch Hawker’s 2012 Wooden Roller Coaster Poll

By: Jonathan Hawkins

Jonathan Hawkins — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:39:15 +0000

Haven't filled out my ballot yet this year (I don't think I did it last year either.. lazy), but I've got 96 woodies to rate so it won't be easy. That said, I do know what my top 10 will look like:

1. The Voyage
2. Phoenix
3. Boulder Dash
4. Ravine Flyer II
5. El Toro
6. Thunderhead
7. Hades
8. Tonnerre de Zeus
9. The Raven
10. The Legend

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:30:25 +0000

I've been on about 60 wooden coasters and 214 (i've counted) total. After my favorite and a few runner ups there's no way I could rank them.

Voyage is my favorite woodie. I haven't been on El Toro.

Ravine Flyer, Tremors, Terminator/Apocalypse, Thunderhead, Raven, Phoenix and Twister, Texas Cyclone, Riverside Cyclone (when it was new) and Hercules (also when it was new). I couldn't precisely rank and rate them. They might fit in that order. Or not.

By: Matt McIrvin

Matt McIrvin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:11:47 +0000

Given that I only rode on two wooden coasters in 2012 (and they are, in fact, the only wooden coasters I've ridden that are still standing), I don't think there's much point.

I'm still a little sad that the steel poll for 2011 went away, because I'd actually have had significant opinions there, but, you know, it's all free ice cream anyway!

By: Bobbie Butterfield

Bobbie Butterfield — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:16:40 +0000

Thanks for the link! I struggled a bit with the ballot because I kept forgetting to check off the coasters I'd ridden in the last year but managed to complete it and filling it out was a lot of fun! Choosing my top 5 – El Toro, The Voyage, Shivering Timbers, Thunderhead and The Beast, in that order – was easy but ordering them at the bottom of the list was more challenging. It was a question of deciding which was the worst of the worst. I actually put Mean Streak at the bottom of the list, just after Cyclone Six Flags New England. It strikes me as odd that a coaster with a 155-foot drop can be so lacking in airtime. There was a time when a drop of that size was big news; when they put up Hercules at Dorney Park with its 150-foot drop in 1989, it set a new record. (Never got to ride Hercules b/c I didn't take up roller coaster riding until late in the 2010 season.)

By: Matt P

Matt P — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 01:41:14 +0000

Thanks for the link to the drag and drop ballot generator! At first I was very confused with the instructions that the site gave. The poll generator was very simple and easy to use. Thanks to the ballot generator, I sent my ballot with no problem.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:52:04 +0000

I have never submitted a ballot and probably won't this time either. I tried working on the Drag and Drop generator and found it difficult to use. I only got as far as moving the rides I had ridden over to the work column and ordering my top few rides, much less the lower ranked ones which could take several more hours. My arm was very tired from mousing for a couple of hours straight and then I couldn't save any of my work for later.

It would be better if there were just check boxes for the rides we've ridden and another box to type in our numerical rankings.

I know this poll is highly esteemed, but it is excessively complicated.