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Biggest Disappointment...

Hutch said:
Easily El Toro.

Originally got spited, and it took another four years for me to finally get on it. It remained at the top of my bucket list for years, so I was quite disappointed to find out it ran like ****. Constant rattle all the way around. Combine that with the hard lap bars and intensity, you get a very uncomfortable and in some cases painful ride.

I'll be back at the park this year, hopefully for the Live, but you'll have to persuade me to ride it again.
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It was running beautifully in October last year so mybe they have fixed whatever roughness some people have been experiencing.
 
Nitro. Should have been awesome, but my rides were ruined by a very noticable rattle, all the way round, every time. Just couldn't ignore it. I accept that I was unlucky and just caught it on a bad day, I'd like to try it again sometime, but on the day I was there it ran like a bag of spanners.

Intimidator 305. Can't quite put my finger on why I was disappointed with this, other than I simply didn't feel much. I was expecting great things, top 3 perhaps, but it just felt kinda flat and... what's the word? Soulless. Yes, that's it. Soulless. It had no soul. It's just a thing.

Karnan. Oh my God, so much faff. Long wait, unbelievably faffy loading procedure, and that stupid, pointless, time wasting, gimmicky lift hill... just get on with it ffs!!
It was all going quite well to start with but for me there was a very definite moment - I think it was while hanging around at the bottom of that stupid lift hill for the second time - that the bubble burst and I just thought 'Ok, bored now'. And it never really recovered from that. Plus, when it does finally get going you can't enjoy it because you've been in the pitch black for so long you spend the rest of the ride being blinded by the sudden daylight. And that stupid, pointless, gimmicky, post brake-run inversion can f*** off too.
Crap ride. The Smiler is better. There, I said it.
 
Wavebreaker- SeaWorld San Antonio

The launch was very slow and the ride really meandered around. I know it's meant for families but it had the potential to be like Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure
 
Steel Curtain. Unsure how something that big can be so forceless?

tbf I only had one ride early in the day, hopefully it rides better when warmed up.
 
Maxx Force

This ride is at my home park (SFGAm), so I, of course, was hoping for the best. I went into it knowing that it would be a short ride- I was prepared for that. I'd heard nothing but great things about this coaster, people ranking it the best in the park, etc. But, once I stepped off it I felt extremely underwhelmed. I'd expected some ejector, but there was absolutely none.

However, I can admit that a back-row ride was a lot better than the other two i'd gotten on it (Row 2, Row 6)
 
Firehawk @KI. It's the only flying dutchman I've ridden, and I was not impressed. My expectations weren't that high to begin with since I'd heard mixed reviews, but I was still disappointed. Apart from it being pretty uncomfortable, it just didn't really do anything interesting. Looking down at the ground with nothing below you was neat for a second, but that was about all it had to offer. A novelty without substance.
 
cmix said:
Firehawk @KI. It's the only flying dutchman I've ridden, and I was not impressed. My expectations weren't that high to begin with since I'd heard mixed reviews, but I was still disappointed. Apart from it being pretty uncomfortable, it just didn't really do anything interesting. Looking down at the ground with nothing below you was neat for a second, but that was about all it had to offer. A novelty without substance.
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See... I liked it. I'm probably the only person who did like it, but even so, I think the hate it gets is unjustified. Like yourself, Firehawk is the only Flying Dutchman I've ridden too and I was bracing myself for pure torture... but it never materialised. The seats and restraints weren't that uncomfortable, and the track wasn't that rough, and the layout I thought was actually pretty cool, much more interesting than some of the lame B&M flyers out there (Air, the Supermen etc..)
People say "Yes but the lifthill lies you on your back and points you at the sun. Eww".
Well hang on a minute, surely most coasters with a lifthill point you up at the sun? You might be travelling backwards on a Dutchman instead of forwards, but the seating position and angle of ascent is just like any other lifthill. That's just whining for the sake of whining if you ask me.
Nah yeah, Firehawk was alright. Only rode it in 2018, very glad I had the chance.
 
Wicker Man
I was in the optimistic camp for this when it was being constructed, thinking it would be a fun-for-all family ride. Instead, it just feels like a taller, longer kids coaster. Theming is nice, but hardly anything to rave about either? I've had one good ride on it tbf, where I cam off and thought 'yeah, that's what this should have been', but any other time I've done it (even on the same day as my good ride), it's been very meh.

Olympia Looping
I get the hype for this ride in the sense that it's a 30+ year old travelling coaster (and a large one at that!), that's still running well. That's amazing. But the ride itself is uncomfortable and a bit of a turd, to be honest.

Dizz
I can't remember what Bobbejaanland have rethemed this to, but whatever. I really enjoy spinning coasters as they're dependable fun experiences which can differ every ride, and this looked cool too. But wow, this was just dull as dishwater.
 
Balder

Spend most of my enthusiast life being told how incredible this coaster was, but when I finally got on it I was left confused. The layout is repetitive and the airtime was kind of jerky and nor massively enjoyable. Plus it seemed so slow around the corners I felt gravity pulling me down. I tried attributing this to maybe a bad day of running, but I've been a couple times now and I still don't feel the magic. Don't get me wrong though, it's defo fun, and that first drop, but for the legendary status it had I was let down.
 
For roller coasters, I’d say I was disappointed by Apollo’s Chariot. Didn’t get much air time and it was running slowly when I rode it.

For all rides, my expectations might have been too high for Rise of the Resistance. It has the best story telling on a ride that I’ve ever seen but lacks that “wow” moment you get on the best dark rides. In terms of special effects, there’s nothing better, but it didn’t make me feel anything.
 
Sorry to bump the thread, but if we’re allowed to say about non-coasters here, I’d controversially say that Cyclonator at Paultons Park was a bit of a disappointment for me.

I should probably preface this review by saying that I don’t have an especially high spin tolerance, but going in, I’d heard nothing but rave reviews, even from people who don’t have very high spin tolerances like myself (the general consensus from just about everyone was “best UK flat ride”, and the frisbee ride type as a whole gets rave reviews). Going in, I was hoping for something akin to a slightly spinning Rush at Thorpe Park (which I absolutely love, and hold up as one of my favourite flat rides!); I was hoping that there wouldn’t be too much spinning, with some nice sustained floater at the top of each crest to complement the sense of speed at the bottom. I’d never ridden a frisbee before, so I was unsure what to expect, although I had high expectations as practically everyone who’s ridden a frisbee has given the ride type absolutely rave reviews.

However, when I actually rode it, it didn’t really seem to provide any floatiness; it just felt like non-stop spinning and intensity with no real negative g-forces, which isn’t really my kind of thing. Combine that with the pretty uncomfortable restraints (I don’t know about anyone else, but I found them really quite tight, and not very comfortable to sit in at all), and I’ll admit I didn’t find Cyclonator overly fun, personally. Don’t get me wrong, I can certainly see the appeal, as the sense of speed in the valleys was quite good, and the spinning was very intense, but I was riding it thinking “Ooh dear, this is making me feel a bit strange…” as opposed to “Wow, this is fun!”, and I was disappointed that there wasn’t really much in the way of floatiness.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the most unpleasant flat ride experience I’ve ever had (not as bad as Air Race at Drayton, where I literally got off thinking I was going to throw up), and I applaud Paultons for trying a more thrilling ride, but it made me feel a bit strange, and it’s not something I’d be rushing to repeat, if I’m being completely honest.

I’ll admit I find my opinion of Cyclonator strange, as I found Storm Chaser in the same area to be excellent, and a perfectly tolerable level of spinning… SC was my favourite ride at Paultons, and I rode it 3 times!

Out of interest, do all frisbee rides ride as intensely as Cyclonator, or do others ride with less intensity and more floater? I’d heard from some that the larger frisbees are less intense and more floaty than the smaller ones like Cyclonator, but I’m not sure if you guys would agree?
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, do all frisbee rides ride as intensely as Cyclonator, or do others ride with less intensity and more floater? I’d heard from some that the larger frisbees are less intense and more floaty than the smaller ones like Cyclonator, but I’m not sure if you guys would agree?
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Spinspider at tusenfryd is certainly very floaty, and not that pukey!
 
El Toro

June of 2014. Was the most eh ride I have ever ridden. I thought The Dark Knight Coaster had more umpf to it.
 
Hopefully I like the bigger frisbees more; thanks both!

Out of interest, do Intamin’s Gyroswings (e.g. Maelstrom at Drayton or Loke at Liseberg) ride differently to Zamperla’s?
 
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