This blog is the first part of a four-part mini-series where I re-ranked all of my coaster credits after 2020. I wasn’t happy with my original rankings when the site launched, which you can read about in the “Preview – 2021 Favorite Coasters Listings,” blog.
As it stands presently, I have 69 wood coaster credits under my belt. When I launched We Were Inverted back at the end of June 2020, I only included my Top 25 Wooden Coasters to keep things easy. I also listed racing coasters only once, even though I have always counted each course as a separate credit. Moving forward, I will be counting each course on a racing coaster separately. Doing this keeps things easier for me when trying to make sure all my credits have been included on my lists on Coaster-Count. The same will hold true on the upcoming steel and overall listings as well. Here is how things stacked up with my 2021 revamp:
Wooden Coasters 1-69
Numbers found at the end of each listed coaster below represent where the coaster ranked in the original 2020 list. If there is no number present, that coaster failed to meet the Top 5, 25, or 50 ranking used for the category. All new credits that were not ranked are also noted.
- El Toro – Six Flags Great Adventure (1)
- Lightning Rod – Dollywood (2)
- Mystic Timbers – Kings Island (3)
- Voyage – Holiday World (5)
- Beast– Kings Island (4)
- Phoenix – Knoebels (6)
- Ravine Flyer II – Waldameer (8)
- Twister – Knoebels (11)
- Comet – Hersheypark (7)
- Blue Streak – Conneaut Lake Park (9)
- Comet – Great Escape (14)
- Raven – Holiday World (15)
- Cyclone – Luna Park (13)
- Legend – Holiday World (17)
- Thunderbolt – Kennywood (12)
- Hoosier Hurricane – Indiana Beach (16)
- Dragon Coaster – Rye Playland Park
- Cannon Ball – Lake Winnepesaukah (18)
- Wild One – Six Flags America (21)
- Thunderhead – Dollywood (19)
- Lightning Racer (Lightning) – Hersheypark (10)
- Lightning Racer (Thunder) – Hersheypark (10)
- Jack Rabbit – Seabreeze (22)
- Jack Rabbit – Kennywood
- Cornball Express – Indiana Beach
- Blue Streak – Cedar Point
- Wooden Warrior – Quassy
- Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain – Indiana Beach
- Switchback – ZDT’s Amusement Park (23)
- InvadR – Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Racer (Right) – Kennywood (25)
- Racer (Left) – Kennywood (25)
- Racer 75 (South) – Kings Dominion (24)
- Racer 75 (North) – Kings Dominion (24)
- Racer (Blue) – Kings Island
- Racer (Red) – Kings Island
- Thunder Road (South) – Carowinds
- Thunder Road (North) – Carowinds
- Boulder Dash – Lake Compounce
- Thunder Run – Kentucky Kingdom
- Grizzly – Kings Dominion
- Kingdom Coaster – Dutch Wonderland
- Skyliner – Lakemont Park
- Great White – Morey’s Pier
- Silver Comet – Fantasy Island
- Mean Streak – Cedar Point
- Hercules – Dorney Park
- Leap the Dips – Lakemont Park
- Thunderhawk – Dorney Park
- Flying Turns – Knoebels
- Flyer – Dinosaur Beach
- Thunderbolt – Six Flags New England
- Judge Roy Scream – Six Flags Over Texas
- Cyclone – Six Flags New England
- Hurler – Kings Dominion
- Hurler – Carowinds
- Wildcat – Hersheypark
- Roar – Six Flags America
- Great American Scream Machine – Six Flags Over Georgia
- Rolling Thunder (Left) – Six Flags Great Adventure
- Rolling Thunder (Right) – Six Flags Great Adventure
- Predator – Darien Lake
- Woodstock Express – Kings Dominion
- Woodstock Express – Kings Island
- Woodstock Express – Carowinds
- Comet – Waldameer
- Hellcat – Clementon Park
- Wildcat – Lake Compounce
- Devil’s Den – Conneaut Lake Park
There really wasn’t a ton of movement in the Top 10. Twister at Knoebels moved up a few spots. I’ve always loved this coaster and thought it deserved a bit more love on my part. Even though I’m a massive fan of airtime, Twister’s location and layout has always fascinated me. It’s just so vastly different to me than all the other coasters on my list and I felt like it deserved to be moved up. I’m sure Chance from Cheapthusiast would probably tell me I’m nuts. Oh well!
While Twister managed to move up three spots, Hersheypark’s Comet managed to fall three spots. During my 13 visits in 2020, I found Comet to be riding a bit sluggish. Still, it’s hard for me to drop such a sentimental coaster too far down my list. Comet is after all, the first “big” coaster I ever rode. It’s going to get some points for that alone. Add in all the memories I have of riding this wooden classic with some of my Aunt Cheryl as a kid, my classmates as a teenager, and all my closest friends an adult, there is no way this will ever fall too far. Comet is like that favorite hoodie or pair of jeans for me. I’m sure all of us have a coaster like Comet is for me.
When you scan down to numbers 11-25 on the list, this is where you begin to see some movement, and some significant movement at that. A former Top 10 coaster fell down to 21/22 in Hersheypark’s Lightning Racer. Oddly enough, this was due to some of the same reasons as Comet. For all of 2020, the ride just felt slow. I experienced airtime on the Lightning side and only on half of those rides at most. For a good portion of the year, the ride’s pacing had one side beating the other by a half a train length, if not more. I had never seen that in all the years of this coaster’s operation. Races have always been tight. Thankfully, that did finally get rectified after a month or so.
With all that said, I still love this coaster. Its unique layout and the countless experiences I’ve had on it over the years always have me wanting to jump in line for a ride, regardless. I’m just not tied to it as emotionally as I am with Comet. That is why this one took a bit of a dive.
Three different coasters, Dragon Coaster (17) from Rye Playland Park, Jack Rabbit (24) at Kennywood, and Cornball Express (25) at Indiana Beach all moved into Top 25 spots on this updated list. I didn’t ride a single one of these rides in 2020, so what changed? Well, these coasters are just some of the ones I didn’t give a fair shake to when making my original list. When making my 2020 list, I found myself finding reasons to move a coaster higher or lower than it deserved. For example, is Jack Rabbit a “better” coaster than Lake Compounce’s Boulder Dash, which is number 39 on this new list? For many, including a lot of Golden Ticket voters, hell no! Is it for me? Thus far in my life, yes. In 2020, I would have put Boulder Dash higher just because I knew it “should” be a better coaster, regardless of my own experiences, which haven’t been good with the ride.
Boulder Dash Keeps Dashing My Hopes
I went into Lake Compounce with high hopes in 2014. I was able to ride Boulder Dash twice, but the operations were painfully slow. One train ops on a sweltering hot day had me drained by the time it was our turn. Overall, I had an okay ride, but it didn’t wow me. It was a little rough, but nothing too bad. The same held true when riding it one last time before we left, although I did get beat up more the second time. I chalked it up to being exhausted.
Fast forward four years and I was hoping to have a better experience when I visited Lake Compounce for the second time. I was glad to be getting the Phobia Phear Coaster credit, but I wanted some re-rides Boulder Dash most of all. All I have to say is, “Wow!” And no, not in a good way. I got to the park when it opened. Phobia was the ONLY major ride running at the time. I didn’t know if the park was even going to open Boulder Dash before I had to leave. I was only there for a few hours with plans to visit both Quassy and the PEZ Factory, time permitting, on the way home. Had the ride never opened, however, it might have placed higher on my list.
When Boulder Dash did eventually open, I jumped right on and had one of the roughest rides of my life of any wooden coaster – yes, even worse than my lone ride on Clementon Park’s Hellcat. I’m not lying either. It hurt and hurt bad! The rough spots mostly came during the return trip to the station. I felt a headache coming on immediately after the ride, but I wanted to go again just to see if it was an abnormality. I rode in the front thinking it might be a smoother ride, but it was just as bad. I couldn’t force myself to go again, so I went to the gift shop, bought some pins, and made my way to Quassy. There I had much better rides on Wooden Warrior, which I also rank higher than Boulder Dash.
Hopefully one day I’ll be able to re-ride Boulder Dash again. Third time is a charm, they say. I hope so. I really love that coaster’s setting and want to feel the way others do about the ride. If that day comes, then I’ll certainly rethink its placement and move it accordingly. For now, however, I’m sure it’s one of the biggest “huh?” placements on my list for most enthusiasts.
Some of the hardest wooden coasters for me to rank have been ones such as Indiana Beach’s Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain (28), Lakemont Park’s Leap the Dips (48), and Kennywood’s Flying Turns (50). These coasters are so unique. None of them give the best airtime, most forceful laterals, or whatever measuring stick you want to use. With these I just had to go with what I love about each. Does the unique setting and bizarre nature of Lost Coaster make it something I’d rather ride than, let’s say, Thunder Run (40) at Kentucky Kingdom? I felt like it did. For Leap the Dips, it’s historic nature did not. For Flying Turns, it’s one-of-a-kind status as a wooden bobsled coaster didn’t either. I’m not even downplaying those aspects of either ride. It’s just what I was able to weigh against the smooth rides I had on Thunder Run.
The same holds true for the smaller, junior-sized woodies – namely, Dutch Wonderland’s Kingdom Coaster (42). I absolutely love this purple and teal coaster. Like Comet at Hersheypark, I have many memories of this coaster growing up. In 2020, I was able to ride it again for the first time in a while. It still held up to me and is not only a beautiful coaster to look at, it still rides very smooth. Dutch Wonderland certainly takes care their Custom Coaster International (CCI) woodie. All that said, I’m sure I rank it higher than other enthusiasts out there. Then again, perhaps Kingdom Coaster is someone’s first coaster, or they have even more vivid memories on it than I do. They could rank it near the top of their lists for all I know. That’s what makes each one of these lists personal.
Have you ridden these coasters? If so, which ones of the bunch are your favorites? Why do you rank your favorites the way you do? I’d love to know.
