Weirdest rides you’ve ever had on coasters

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Over the years, there are probably some coasters that you get to ride a fair amount, and some coasters that you have a fair idea of how they will probably ride before you ride them. However, a ride can sometimes catch you off guard in quite a big way. For instance, a ride of a type you’ve done before might ride totally differently to how you expected, or even a coaster you’ve had many rides on previously might provide a ride where it does something totally unexpected, and totally out of step with what you’ve ever known it do in the past. So my question to you today is; what are some of the weirdest rides you’ve ever had on coasters, where they did something you totally weren’t expecting?

I’ve got 2 that come to mind, and they’re both rides on coasters I’d ridden before where the ride did something unexpected…

• The Big One - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (August 2019): Now, I’d ridden the Big One previously in August 2018, and I’d remembered it packing little in the way of intensity and thrill for a ride of that size; the positive g-forces were fairly low. I had one ride in August 2019, however, where a very weird thing happened. I rode somewhere in the middle, and as we plunged down the first drop… I greyed out. And this wasn’t just a brief few spots in my vision, either; this was a solid grey out that lasted a good few seconds, and probably up there with one of the more intense ride grey outs I’ve ever had. My vision was gone all the way up to the top of the first hill, and it was properly weird to feel that sensation given that the ascent up the first hill isn’t even that steep. This did not happen in 2018, and it did not happen on my ride in the back car later in the day, either… bizarre. I also rode Silver Star at EP, a coaster that goes faster and has a somewhat steeper, tighter pullout after its first drop than the Big One, recently, and I did not grey out once on any of the 10 rides I had on that. Weird how the Big One did that to me when Silver Star didn’t in spite of its higher speed and steeper pullout from the first drop… also weird given that the Big One never did that to me before and never did it again.
• Wicker Man - Alton Towers (April 2021): I’d had a grand total of 5 rides on Wicker Man prior to April 2021, and I’d found them all fairly smooth and comfortable by woodie standards; I find Wicker Man such a fun ride! For my 6th ride on Wicker Man, I was seated in the front row. I’d ridden in the front on a previous visit, and it was terrific fun, so I was looking forward to my ride. And for the first few elements, the ride was smooth, comfortable and fun as ever. However, when we reached the final wicker man pass through, something very weird happened… the ride gave me what was possibly one the roughest single jolts I’ve ever experienced on a coaster. It jolted forwards very hard through that final wicker man pass through, and gave me a thumping headache that was “Saw The Ride at Thorpe Park on a bad day” level. When I got off, I could feel my head pounding, and it seemed to pound more with every step I took away from the ride. This was very weird; Wicker Man never did this on any of my 5 rides before, and on the 8 rides I’ve had since then, in June and September 2021, it never did this again. On my recent rides, it’s been back to its usual smooth, comfortable and fun self, with no jolts to be found anywhere. Truly bizarre stuff…

But what have been some of the weirdest coaster rides you’ve ever had, where a ride did something that was totally out of step with what you expected?

 

[Rob Coasters]

I lost my glasses at Thorpe Park (falsely believing they had maliciously been stolen from the Stealth storage rectangles of unhappiness) and had to deal with the second half of my day at the park without them. As I'm very short sighted and the glasses have essential light reaction in terms of tinting when it's bright (yeah, my eyes are THAT bad) I spent the next couple hours in pain.

Anyway, I decided to check back at Stealth at the end of the day but right now it was an hour until close. I decided to curtains the day on Nemesis Inferno, in a pretty bad mood from not having my glasses and potentially having to fork out another stupid amount of money for a new pair when I get back home. Not before having to deal with public transport with my reading ability more or less gone. Nightmare awaited me.

I parked myself in the back row and what followed was by FAR my least intense ever experience of the ride. It was storming through the course as it was the end of the day... and the ride literally did nothing to me. The prelift did nothing. The loop did nothing. The Zero G and corks were underwhelming, and the best part of the ride was that turnaround between the corkscrews and the final helix. Tied with the PREDROP OFF THE LIFT.

Getting off the ride I was by a country mile the first person to exit the ride and area. I looked behind me after getting down the stairs to see not a soul behind me.

It's like my bad mood killed off any power the ride tried to give to me. And I find Inferno to be stupidly intense every single time I go on it.

Eventually I went to the Stealth photo booth and turns out they had been taken by someone by accident and gave them to the guys at the photo booth. So I did end up getting them back, and the day ended on a high as my mood was instantly lightened again and I became 'me' again.

But that Inferno ride... wow.

Can a bad mood really offset a ride's intensity that much? Turns out it can? Wow.

I know this isn't the Inferno I know and love, and I am 100% willing to give it more chances - I am convinced this was a one-off.

But another thing I do know, is to never trust the Stealth storage rectangles again.

But... a MASSIVE thank you to the person who realised they took the wrong glasses, I cannot thank them enough, they did the right thing.

 

[EDjanaika]

This one goes to Hero everyone's favourite rollercoaster ever

We were on the lift hill spinny thing and we'd attached on when suddenly, they stopped the lift and the ride completely. We were then moved backwards off the lift hill and i thought we were going to get evacuated but a few seconds later they sent us round again without an explanation. That was the weird part.
The ride is weird itself and is my least favourite coaster ever.