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Coasters you really like that aren’t particularly intense

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Many enthusiasts often rate coasters highly based on them being intense rides; from what I can gather, many of the world’s most commonly highly rated coasters are very intense rides that put you through your paces and barely leave you with a second to breathe. But what about those coasters that aren’t especially intense? Those rides that you might really like in spite of them not packing overly strong g-forces? We don’t often talk about coasters that just provide pure fun; intensity often wins out in the eyes of enthusiasts.

So my question to you today is; what are some of the rides you’ve done that aren’t particularly intense, but you rate highly? What are your favourite coasters that you wouldn’t say are particularly intense?

In terms of my own answer, I’m actually somewhat different to most enthusiasts in that I think pure intensity does not make a highly rated ride for me. In fact, I actually think that too much intensity can take away from a ride for me. I rate coasters based on fun and rerideability, so my answer to this question equates strongly to my top 10.

If I talk about my top 3, for instance (Mako at SeaWorld Orlando, Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Wicker Man at Alton Towers), I would not say that any of them are overly intense rides. Don’t get me wrong, they pack a punch when I’m on them, I get a huge kick out of riding them, and they have some of the most excellent airtime I’ve yet experienced (Mako and Icon in particular have some absolutely phenomenal moments of airtime; Mako still has some of the strongest sustained air I’ve ever experienced, from memory!), but none of the 3 are hugely intense g-machines by any means. However, all 3 are enormously fun rides, all 3 put a huge grin on my face after riding, and all 3 give me an instantaneous urge to run straight back round for another go, and that’s why they rank so highly for me!

But what are some of your favourite coasters that aren’t especially intense? Do you think that intensity is an important element of a coaster, or do you agree with me in thinking that fun and rerideability are more important?
 
There are a few "not very intense" coasters pretty high up in my top 25, namely Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach being (by quite some way) the most obvious one at #18. There's also Cobra at Paultons Park at #19. Also, shout out to Wicker Man at #9 and OzIris at #8 (although with the latter I genuinely cannot remember the majority of my experience, who knows maybe it is more intense than I make it out to be).

I've done far more intense coasters, but a coaster that was bordering on too intense to be rerideable was Wipeout in the back row at Pleasurewood Hills. Damn that was so much more forceful and intense than I remembered. Not a bad ride by any means, just caught me off guard! Seriously underestimated these things. Although I did manage a reride on it twenty minutes later in the front row (after Egg-Spress) which was much more manageable and I'm not sure why provided the ride goes both directions.

Wipeout is #41 for me but I've always been very conflicted on its placement because it's surrounded by coasters I only did once and can't remember half of, and the fact that it's so different from everything else I've done.

Looking back, I think Wipeout might be the only coaster I've done that I thought to myself "I'm not keen on getting immediately back on".
 
For steel, I vote gatekeeper. It didn't give very strong forces period.
For wood, I vote screamin eagle sfstl. Floater air and weak positives, plus it's really smooth for a woodie.
 
Gold Rusher and Verbolten are my guilty pleasures. Even the Matterhorn is enjoyable for the memories it brings. I love em all except for SLC's and boomerangs. ^^ I love me some Space Mountain, too.
 
FIRECHASER EXPRESS

also space mountain WDW and Matterhorn bobsleds.

I also have a soft spot for gemini and adventure express.

RIP original seabreeze bobsleds.
 
Total homer answer, but SFGAm's Whizzer immediately popped into mind for me when I read the thread title.

It's definitely not an intense ride, but man is it ever just good old fashioned fun. And with those super comfy rolling barcalounger seats, I could ride it all day long, just zipping around through the forest on an old Schwarzkopf classic.

Of course, nostalgia plays a big part in it too. Whizzer was built in '76, the same year I was born, and I've lived in Chicago my entire life, so I literally grew up with the thing. It was my very first ever "big boy" coaster, and it certainly plays a leading role in the story of why I love roller coasters so much in the first place.

Just an absolutely all-around fantastically pure-fun ride! It's a damn shame that more speed-racers weren't built.
 
My very own retirement coaster...Icon at Blackpool, they built it just for me for my old age.
Nice ride for all the family, very rerideable, shared the back seat only yesterday with a chap who had done fifteen rides...by lunchtime!
 
Love me a bit of Lisebergbanan. Long, fast, smooth and lots and lots of lovely, gentle, floaty swoopiness. Lovely.

Weirdly, I wanna say Dominator. Ok so it's an enormous B&M floorless which are typically fairly intense coasters, but with Dominator's layout (dropping 2 inversions from the more usual layout and replacing them with a nice swoopy turnaround), plus an impeccably smooth ride, make Dominator notably less intense than its cousins, but infinitely more comfortable, re-rideable and (almost) relaxing! It ended up being my favourite floorless coaster. Lovely!

There may be more, I might come back to this thread later when I've thought of some others...
 
Galactica/Air its not the fastest, its not the tallest, its not very intense or frightening.
But its very nice, its smooth, its chill and in my opinion, quite relaxing. then technology is interesting. its very swoopy and it glides round the track rather than being wrenched round.

it also looks very cool. I love the way the futuristic looking trains swoop through the trees almost silently
 
Fury 325 at Carowinds (#6) - I was a bit hesitant to mention this one, since I'm sure Fury does pull some solid Gs, it's just that the high-speed winds probably mask them. Still, it's a graceful, floajector airtime-filled but fast-paced ride with my favorite first drop of any coaster.

Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia (#7) - Aside from that helix, it's not very intense, but every single hill delivers sustained floater to floajector air, with not a single dead spot. You could say similar things about other B&M hypers, but Goliath is my favorite out of the 7 I've ridden.

Phoenix at Knoebels (#10) - A fantastic example of an older coaster that easily stacks up to its newer counterparts; you just can't go wrong with that standing airtime, immaculately smooth track and buzzbars. It may not have the aggressive laterals or the rampant pace of Twister, but luckily that makes for high rerideability. Even after 21 laps in a day, Phoenix never failed to leave me without a smile on my face.
 
I guess I'd say Wild Eagle. It's pretty mild when I think about it, but I really love the first drop, the sense of speed, and the beautiful wooded setting. It curls my toes.

Cheetah Hunt also comes to mind.
 
The obvious choice is B&M hypers, but some of them definitely have some strong g's (i.e. Goliath, Nitro).

I'd definitely say Verbolten for me. Super fun ride that brings a smile to my face every time. It's not really intense, with the exception of the indoor helix (but that's due to how small it is). Most of it comes down to the variety it has to offer, both in terms of ride elements and storytelling.

Also love Thunderbird and Gatekeeper, though they both have a some solid positive forces at the start.

Manta would also be another great example if it weren't for the pretzel loop... so I guess that means Air deserves a mention!
 
Looking at my top 20 - the one that jumps out is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland Paris - an absolute joy of a ride. An argument could be made for most Disney rollercoasters I feel, as its the often the theming rather than the intensity that elevates them, but this one for me remains the stand out
 
The Swarm is the first that comes into my head - the only coaster at Thorpe I particularly rate.

Then of course there's coasters like Leviathan which are great, but I could probably sleep on them, whilst a lot of people are fairly dismissive of Blue Fire as well.
Took me a while to get accustomed to it, but I'm also rather fond of Thirteen now :)
 
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