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What is your favourite coaster that you’ve only ridden once?

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. When reviewing rides, you often hear enthusiasts trot out the line “You can’t judge it off one ride”, and most people will aspire to get multiple different goes on a ride. Whether to test various different seats and riding conditions or to simply get a better feel for the ride, many enthusiasts like to take multiple laps on a new coaster when reviewing it. But sometimes, this isn’t possible. At times, circumstance will mean that you’re only able to get 1 ride on a coaster for whatever reason. With this in mind, I’d be really interested to know; what is your favourite coaster that you’ve only ridden once? What ride that you were only able to do once left the strongest impression?

I’ll get the ball rolling with my answer.

Personally, my favourite coaster that I’ve only ridden once is Ice Breaker at SeaWorld Orlando, which currently sits at #9 in my rankings out of 113. I wanted a second ride on it, but just as I went to get a second ride on it, a thunderstorm broke out and we went home…

Incidentally, my top 5 coasters that I’ve only ridden once are as follows:
  1. Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10, #9/113)
  2. Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10, #13/113)
  3. Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10, #19/113)
  4. Rock’n’Rollercoaster - Disney’s Hollywood Studios (8/10, #26/113)
  5. Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10, #28/113)
Given that I’d describe myself as quite poor at getting many, many rides on coasters compared to some others, I find it interesting that even I had to delve right to the bottom of my top 25% to find 5 coasters that I’d only ridden once!

But I’d be interested to know; what is your favourite coaster that you’ve only ridden once?
 
#1 Anubis - The Ride - Plopsaland De Panne (#36 overall)
#2 Fury - Bobbejaanland (#37 overall)
#3 Goudurix - Parc Asterix (#41 overall)
#4 Troy - Toverland (#44 overall)
#5 Pulsar - Walibi Belgium (#45 overall)

For me I think it definitely shows that I only got one ride on each of these. I think Fury and Troy's placements could shift significantly if I got more rides on them.
 
Top Thrill 2 : I knew after 1 ride I preferred it to the original. I currently have it at #8. That may change after more laps, but at this point I feel lucky to have even ridden it once.
 
Probably Rock n Rollercoaster at Hollywood Studios.

A tough question actually, there are many rides I rate highly, and plenty I'd love to get back on, I know I had re-rides on Montu so that takes that out of the equation, Kumba was closed.

Kraken is a possible too, after 3 visits to Seaworld we finally managed to get a ride, it was during the period it ran with VR and all the tickets were allocated before we got in on the other visits. We did get one go, front row and decided not to have the headset on, I enjoyed it but remeber thinking I preferred Dragon Khan, so I will answer RnR
 
The only coaster that I only got one ride on and is currently ranked in my top 50 is Lost Gravity in Walibi Holland. The only time I visited the park since LG's opening was in 2021 when anti-covid measures were still in full swing and most of the major rides were only available through a virtual queueing system. Unsurprisingly, Untamed took preference on the day, but Lost Gravity is still an absolutely stellar coaster in its own right. I do agree it's a bit difficult to properly rate it, so I feel it's sitting a bit lower in the rankings as it should be.

Up until a couple of years ago I also had X2, Tatsu, Nemesis and Blackpool's Wild Mouse pretty high in my top 50, though I ended up removing them from the rankings, as my memory of those rides became too hazy. A big shame I'll never be able to re-ride Wild Mouse (and to an extent the OG Nemesis), as I absolutely adored its little sister in Sydney.
 
Oooo, now this is a cracker of a question. I go out of my way to ride rides I really like more than once. But here's the Top 5, including their overall position in my rankings...

CoasterParkOverall Ranking
Batman Gotham City Escape Parque Warner Madrid 31
Cù ChulainnEmerald Park43
Dragon GlidersMotiongate 58
Thor's HammerDjurs Sommerland 70
Fianna ForceEmerald Park 71

You have to go quite low down quite quickly.
 
If I like a coaster enough, I'll always try to get at least 2 rides in. Oftentimes if the coaster is good enough, its tough to judge from just one ride.

My highest ranked coaster I've gotten one ride on is Moonshine Mountain Coaster in Pigeon Forge at 71. That was partly because I got stuck behind a slow rider so I couldn't go full tilt down the mountain and partly because those mountain coasters cost an arm and a leg to ride.

My next highest is Thirteen at Alton Towers (ranked 96). The hour+ waits it had all day combined with the shorter lines at Rita meant that I rode Rita an extra time over Thirteen. If I had a third day, I most definitely would've ridden 13 again and again. I really liked that ride a lot.

After that, there is Batman at SFGAm (ranked 97). I only managed to get one ride on that due to time, but I've ridden plenty of Batman clones before so one ride on that wasn't a huge deal to me.
 
Interesting topic Matt!

This has made me realise that generally if I like a ride I do it more than once. I've done (approx.) 93 coasters, of which only only 19 were ridden just once. Generally these coasters are either rubbish so I didn't do them again (e.g. Gwazi), made me nauseous (e.g. Manta) or were at busy parks which I did single day visits to and couldn't get re-rides (e.g. Heide Park).

Probably the top coasters were Incredible Hulk [original version] (IOA), Colossos (Heide Park), Krake (Heide Park), Mammut (Gardaland) or Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (USO) as these were rides I liked but couldn't reride due to time. As I only did these once my memories of them are hazy, but I'd say Colossos is the one I'm most keen to re-ride.
 
Off the top of my head, Nitro at SFGAdv. Was pressed for time that day trying for the full cred run so only got one lap on each coaster there. Can remember it being very fun though and worthy of my 200 milestone.

May be back in a couple of months though for Jersey Devil and the all important 2nd opinion on the other major coasters there. :)
 
My top 5 that I've only ridden once are:

CoasterParkOverall Rank
X2Six Flags Magic Mountain7
Twisted ColossusSix Flags Magic Mountain16
GhostRiderKnott's Berry Farm17
Gold StrikerCalifornia's Great America18
JokerSix Flags Discovery Kingdom21

All of these were within 3 days of each other and I didn't have time to get more than a single ride. I was also recovering from an injury at the time and could barely walk. Strangely, riding the coasters was great physical therapy, especially Twisted Colossus. Looking forward to more rides on them at some point, but I live on the opposite side of the US.
 
Montu, No. 23 for me. We were rained out of Busch so I only managed to do kumba and iron gwazi more than once, but I really enjoyed Montu. Very solid ride.
 
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If I really like a coaster, I always try go get rerides in. But sometimes, especially because of the queue times, it's hard to get more rides in.
So my top coasters I have only ridden once (in no order):

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure: It's no secret, this ride can get extremely long queues. When I visited IoA it broke down on my first day and got a fast pass to use on my second day. So I only got one ride in. I really liked it, moreso the whole experience than the coaster itself. But a great ride.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind: Also not that easy to get more than one ride in. Similar to Hagrid's, it's a great experience.

Eejanaika: What a crazy experience. I said "holy ****" the entire time. I actually think it's more reridable, than I initially thought. But as the queue times in Fuji Q can get rather long, because of the horrible operations, and the queue closes early, depending on the queue time, I wasn't able to reride it.

Red Force: Would have loved to experience this in multiple rows, but only got one ride on it, because of queue times.
 
Very interesting question!

Obviously if I like something I will re-ride it, the only "notable" thing that springs to mind is Ride of Steel at Darien Lake (back in 2007) , as it broke down not long after I'd ridden it just the once (I'd liked the one at Six Flags America which I'd ridden a couple of years earlier, so was looking forward to a few laps ; alas, spite).
 
I’ve ridden all rides in my top 30 more than once… so reaching out beyond that the first coaster I get to that I rank ‘highly’ but have only ridden once is Red Force. Great ride.

Tbh I’d have to drop way down to ‘OK / good’ creds to find another. Maybe something like ‘Maxx Force’ or one of the ‘Batman the Ride’ clones? I almost always nab multiple rides on things I like - much better than wasting time on forgettable coasters, IMO.
 
Very good question. There's a few parks in the States I've visited when it was too busy or I didn't have enough time to ride a cred more than once. Off the top of my head, the ones that stand out are:

The Beast (Kings Island)
Banshee
Cheetah Hunt
Kumba

And from a recent visit to Italy, I really enjoyed Oblivion: The Black Hole but only had time for one ride.

I'd say all those rides would be in or close to my Top 10% of coasters ridden.

I really need to get back to Florida and have a quieter day at BGT. That park owes me 6 creds now :D
 
Definitely Icon at Blackpool. I was able to ride it once in the back and really liked it, but I was out of practice and became very rough later on, which meant cutting the day short before I had chance to do any rerides.

I did like Ukko at Linnanmaki which was unexpected, but with a chest infection and those restraints I felt like going for a second ride might be pushing it and that maybe I'd got lucky the first time. Wasn't ever an issue on Taiga of course, I got on that 5 times!
 
Echoing the above - Good Question. For me its:

#4 El Toro - I loved it and it was my number 1 afterwards despite just one ride. But my daughter hated it. So the 9 year won out and we didn't go back onto it
#13 Skyrush - Similar story. My daughter didn't like it. Plus it rained a lot on that day and trying to get all of the creds in meant that we didn't have many re-rides at all
#15 Red Force - Long queues innit
#18 Kingda Ka - Again. Very long queues and a lot to get through in a day
#20 Candymonium - same as Skyrush. A rainy busy day meant that it was difficult to get rerides in, even with a fastpass
 
As all have said, really interesting question!

Simple answer for me would be most coasters at BGT. Visited as part of a family holiday on a sweltering and absolutely rammed day in 2016 and got on each of them exactly once. So I have Montu, Kumba, Sheikra all in a vague "that was really good" tier, but have no idea where to place them relative to stuff I've done more recently. I reckon another ride on Cheetah Hunt with the right attitude could turn my opinion on that too. Will hopefully be back soon.

More recently, Big One at Blackpool went down for weather before I had time for a re-ride, but I enjoyed the one ride I did get more than expected.
 
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