To wrap up the year I’m joining a few other sites in writing about our favorite or most memorable single ride of the year. A year ago I would have thought that my ride on one of the new wing coasters, Wild Eagle or X-Flight would had to been my ride of the year. But, I love the adventure of visiting theme parks for new experiences. They can be surprisingly bad or, like in this year’s best ride, surprisingly good!
Mystery Mine & The Power of the Unknown
Completely new experiences can be hard to come by when you’ve traveled around a good bit. There are clone coasters out there like the to Batman – The Ride coasters that I rode this year for the first time. Then there’s rides like the aforementioned wing coasters. They were brand new to me and everyone else. But I’d covered them in detail for months, been interviewed about them, and had almost ridden them in my head before arriving at Dollywood and Six Flags Great America. They were awesome rides. Both received a 9 (Excellent). But, Mystery Mine earns the distinction of Ride of The Year.
I had purposely not researched Mystery Mine this year so that I’d be in the dark (See what I did there?) about the ride’s details. And I’m glad that I did. Rides that combine dark ride and roller coaster aspects (like the highly rated Revenge of the Mummy) rampp up the adventure scale ten fold. Even though it’s not a long ride, there’s a lot going on. So, it feels a good bit longer. The opening dark ride aspects were fun, but at the top of first hill I had no idea what I was about to experience.
Here’s how I described it in my Mystery Mine review:
I had many enjoyable experiences this year at all of the parks that I visited, but this particular first ride on Mystery Mine takes the cake because of the surprise aspects from the theming, small but powerful drop, the second drop, and the hang time from the heartline-dive loop combo that feels like an eternity. Mystery Mine is not the best overall coaster I rode this year, but it definitely gave me the best ride of the year.
See what others have said:
ThemeParkRides.org – Most Memorable Ride Experience of 2012
Coasterblog – My Single Favorite Ride of the Year
The Coaster Guy – My Best Single Ride Experience of 2012
Coaster101 – Best Ride of 2012: Beast at Night
What’s Your Take?
What was your best single ride experience of the year? Did you have a memorable night ride or fun experience with a friend or family member?
Coaster Critic 
41 responses to “2012 Best Single Ride Experience of the Year Series”
Skyrush, not even close for me. Second favorite coaster after El Toro. If it gets slightly more comfortable restraints it would be perfection, but it would be ruined with over shoulder restraints or if it was trimmed
I only visited 2 parks this year, and rode X-Flight for the first time. However, my most memorable ride was the Bonzai Pipeline at SFSTL (which is a smaller version than that of Chicago, who got the bigger coaster and better slide 2 years in a row…), which is a trapdoor water slide. It was incredibly intense, making it my favorite ride of the year.
I visited Universal Stdios, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and my homepark Canada’s Wonderland this year. My favourite ride I rode in these parks this year was the new B&M giga Leviathan.
Skyrush, if we're talking built this year.
Skyrush tied I-305 if we're talking my first rides were this year.
We've got some work to do on the name for this series. Best "Single Ride Experience" is probably a better name. No matter what year it opened and it could be any type of ride roller coasters, flat rides, etc.
Oh and if you have a site and write about your own most memorable or best experience of the year, I'll add a link to it in my post. Just do the same for others in the series.
The Best ride experience that I had was my very first time getting to ride the Intimidator 305 and it was one of the BEST rollercoasters I have ridden yet!
Verbolten – I knew about the drop track and I’d even seen it during construction, but it was still thrilling. Several already mentioned are even better, but for this year, this was my favorite. The theming and homages to the Big Bad Wolf were all very well done, AND it’s a nice little ride.
Skyrush or Nemesis. Two rides that blew me away and two of the most intense coasters I've ever been on.
Either Skyrush or I-305. I kind of knew I-305 was intense so after i rode it and could barely walk after the 3rd ride in a row i was surprised but also knew it would be like that. Skyrush was new though and was so crazy! In my book I-305 and Skyrush are tied for my favorite coaster
Dollywood is high on my list of parks to visit. I've never been there and hope to make a trip soon.
I'm jealous. I've got to get to the UK soon. Nick from ThemeParkTourist wrote an awesome guest review here: Nemesis at Alton Towers
You'll love it. It has an atmosphere unlike any other park, a great variety of rides, top-notch food and shows. I'm glad it's only 4 hours away for me.
I only got to visit one park this year and the best coaster there was Intimidator 305. I expected it to be good but not nearly as good as it was. It had more airtime than I had heard and I didn’t even get close to blacking out. It’s my #2 coaster after Maverick.
The best new rides I rode this year were Farenheit and Skyrush. However, my favorite ride was my 10th ride of the day on Ride of steel at Darein Lake. My aunt and I sat in the front seat. The only other time I had sat in the front seat of a hyper coaster was Intimidator, and I was not impressed. When I felt the wind in my face on RoS, it became one of the best rides of my life, even if it is not a good coaster.
TTD, first ride at the Point. front seat. two days later, arms up during launch!
Surprisingly, for me at least, my most memorable ride of the past year was not on any of the behemoths I had ridden – such as Millennium Force and Intimidator 305 – but on Volcano, The Blast Coaster. It was memorable for both the ride and what led up to it, as it proved to be a turning point in my roller coaster life. Although I had no problem with big boy woodies such as El Toro and The Voyage, and had become addicted to steel hypercoasters, I still had a mental block against inverted coasters. I had finally managed to get on Alpengeist and hated it so much that I swore never again. Maverick, which I loved, doesn’t count because it’s not fully inverted like Volcano. So there I was at Kings Dominion, where I had ridden I305 over and over, and kept looking longingly at Volcano, which looked like an interesting ride. However, I had serious doubts as to whether I could handle it. For some people, being turned upside down on a roller coaster is a harrowing and terrifying experience, probably because it means feeling totally out of control. Anyway, I had almost reached the loading area of Volcano but kept balking at actually entering it. I talked it over with both the park employee at the Fast Lane entrance and a security guard and they did their best to allay my fears. I kept changing my mind but finally decided to take the plunge – although I was still scared out of my mind and afraid that I was going to be sick. Well, surprise, surprise! Despite my initial trepidation at being harnessed in and not being able to turn back, it turned out to be a great ride. After making a left turn out of the loading area, we reached the first launch track and were pretty much in the dark when the train took off at 70mph. Riding around the volcano was a riot and the inversions were beyond cool. I enjoyed the heartline rolls and especially the rollout at 155 feet, an element purportedly unique to this coaster. This is undoubtedly the best inversion I have experienced. Guy next to me seemed to enjoy it equally, as both of us were laughing with delight. I liked this ride so much that as soon as I got off, I got right back on. The ride ops were amused. At any rate, Volcano The Blast Coaster was a breakthrough for me. It cured me of my fear of inverted coasters. I have since gone on to ride a number of them, my other favourites being Storm Runner and Talon.
I am 42, I had 42 coasters under my belt as of last april. I rode 58 new coasters this season. Maverick takes the prize as most memorable for sure. My first ride on Maverick was a wonderful surprise. I had heard about how good it was ahead of time so I saw no pics or vids b4 my first ride. I had no clue about the launches. WOW! My other tops being, El Toro, Millie, Ravine Flyer2, TTD, KA, Alpie, Phoenix, Twister, Hydras Revenge, Nor easter, Sky Rocket, and Wisps Mountain Coaster.
Toro is a close second, I never felt such a need to hold on b4, Can't wait for my first rides on Skyrush next season!
My best single ride experience was riding El Toro at night for 17 rides in a row at Riding of the Bull Cuatro. No doubt it doesn't get better than riding the world's best wooden coaster in pitch blackness for 17 rides. Oh, and it was in pouring rain, which, call me crazy, added to the experience.
I've always wanted to try out mystery mine sometime. I I probably will since pigeon Forge isn't very far away from. I think it's nice to see a coaster that says size doesn't matter.
My best experience of 2012 was the beast, front seat, at night. Everything was pitch black and it felt like an animal was going to jump in front of you the whole time.
It's definitely a good coaster. I just wished that it would have been open when I went to Darien this year. I've ridden before, but I was hoping for another ride.
I'm glad that you got over your fear of loopers. There really a number of different experiences when it comes to inversions as I'm sure you're seeing now. From tight intense loops, to inversions taken a slower speed, to loops with only lapbars, to huge loops that seem to never end, etc. Great to hear that you had that breakthrough.
Great comment! I'd say it's worthy of your blog. If you want post it there, I'll add your post to the rest in our series.
Your experience of not researching was kind of like mine with Mystery Mine. Makes me think I should write a post advocating that sometimes people should NOT overly research new rides. Especially if the rides have a good reputation. You can let that be enough and still get a surprising experience.
Sounds awesome. I haven't done a night ride on El Toro, but now I want to.
I HIGHLY recommend Dollywood and Mystery Mine definitely provides a memorable ride for a number of reasons.
I completely agree. I loved the Beast at night. It's one of my top 5 coaster experiences of all-time. John from Coaster101 agreed too: http://www.coaster101.com/2012/12/26/best-ride-of…
Wow, It is so hard to pick the single best ride experience of the year. I would have to say I was blown away by the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride and the Simpsons ride. I had never been on an attraction that has the level of themeing from the queue to the acutal ride as Forbidden Journey. I had also never experienced the technology that the Forbidden Journey uses and it just really blew me away. Also being a big Simpsons fan I just loved the ride at Universal. The beginning of the ride is one of the most incredible openings I've ever experienced to start a ride. Overall I was blown away by my first trip to Universal Orlando and would love to go again.
Yes it is the absolute best to be surprised by a new coaster. I am planning my first trip to Hershey and I have no clue about it. All I know is I have a lot to look forward to and to hold tight riding Skyrush. I like obsessing over the videos after my first rides.
Another reason is how deceiving looks can be. I might not have gone out of my way to check out the PA woodies if I had researched them ahead of time. All of the following woodies don't look impressive; Phoenix, Jack Rabbit, Racer, Thunder-Hawk and Bolt, even Ravine Flyer 2. Jack Rabbit and Phoenix look almost like a kiddie ride. Then when you ride them you are blown away!
Cedar Point has a great example with Blue Streak. I might have skipped her years ago because of how tame it looks, but I think she is their best wood. Best wood air there for sure!
Yep. Forbidden Journey is right up there for me too. That ride took it to a whole new level.
I would have agreed with you about 15 years ago before they ramped up the trims on the approach to the helix… Before that, riding the Beast at night was an experience that I would look forward to every summer.
I am fortunate enough to have visited and experienced many rides throughout my life. I do mean MANY rides – well over a thousand – my parents took me to Cedar Point for the first time in 1965 and I haven't stopped riding since. You get the picture. Anyway, I don't get out to west coast very often, but I was fortunate enough to get to Knotts and Magic Mountain this past spring. and while I had heard a few stories about X2, I really didn't know much about it – only that it was a 4th-dimension ride. ( I guess I was subconsiously trying to preserve the element of surprise….such as our Coaster Critic did with Mystery Mine.) Being a coaster afficionado, I couldn't avoid seeing pictures of the ride and hearing a little buzz about it, but still didn't know much. When I first saw it, I was amazed at the sight of the massive structure. I even had those little 'butterfiles' in my tummy. I hadn't felt that way since my first ride on Millie at CP!
Because of those feelings, I postponed riding the ride until after I rode the usual suspects (i.g, Talon, Batman, Colossus, Green Lantern (which came a close second behind X2 as my most memorable ride experience this year). When I finally got my nerve up, it was dark and the fire effects on the ride were on full blast. I was ready! When we were waiting in the queue and finally got into the station, I noticed that the coaster-lift took the cars up backwards. I really, really hate being lifted backwards, but I sucked it up and was so glad I did. What an amazing coaster experience. So bloody disorienting. It was a totally surreal and was one of the best rides of my 2012 coaster season. If you haven't done it, I highly recommend it — especially at night.
My best ride experience was Tatsu at Magic Mountain at night, during the Fright Fest. Because of the haloween event, mm turned off the track lights on several rides, and Tatsu was one of them. Tatsu in the day is an incredible flying experience, but at night, with no track lights, it was absoultely awe-inspiring I’ve never felt closer to actually flying, nor have I felt more exhilarated.
I didn't do a large amount of coastering this year, but there's really no contest: Boulder Dash. Somewhat tarnished, though, by the fact that my wife found it way way WAY too much and came off seriously shaken by the experience.
Second best was another terrain coaster, but at the opposite extreme and for different reasons: riding the little Polar Coaster at Story Land (NH) with my daughter. On the first ride, when it went around the first couple of turns, she yelled "This is funner than I thought!!"
That's a great story!
It's interesting how people react differently to these things. I love inversions (the Loch Ness Monster broke the fear for me), but the mere idea of i305 kind of freaks me out!
SkyRush! My third ride of the day, enhanced by the mildly dark sunglasses that I’d never gone back to car to change, was absolutely insanity. After that rapid first drop, the rest of the ride occurs in that previously unexplored territory behind the Comet. With only a dimly lighted path below, that twisted layout gave no warning and showed no mercy as I felt almost helplessly ejected at the top of every rise, banked or not. For a brief moment, my hands descended, searching for a hold as instinct took over on the Stengel dive. I thought I might go flying over the Comet towards the Boardwalk section of the park. It was the first moment of fear I've ever encountered on a coaster and it was absolutely incredible. After of hundreds of different rides, I’d achieved coaster nirvana. Of course, I got back in line and did it again, front seat and all. The coaster gods were with us that day, as every ride garnered a wing seat.
I would probably have to go with my night rides on The Beast in Kings Island. Average at best during the day, amazing at night. El Toro and Bizarro still are the best, but The Beast was my most memorable ride this year.
Good choice. Although not new by any means, Volcano remains one of my top coasters because of its uniqueness and incredibly smooth ride. None other on the planet even close to it.
My overall favorite roller coaster ride experience for 2012 was Top Thrill Dragster. It’s the fastest and highest roller coaster that I’ve been on.
My favorite roller coaster is MF (Millennium Force)
My favorite roller coaster that I rode for the first time last year = TTD
Best “experience” would probably be me and some friends ending the year by packing the back of the train of the S&S woodie, Timberhawk on a cold December night. It was a party plain and simple. However, best coaster of the year was definately El Toro at SFGAdv, absolutely blew me away with it’s aggresive yet smooth barrage of high bank turns and airtime moments. A fun surprise and honorable mention must go to SeaWorld San Diego’s new Manta, is it a family friendly thrill ride? yes. However, it is also one wildly enjoyable and very repeatable floating air machine. I took 8 rides in a row and still wanted more, soooo much fun!