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Your biggest positive surprise?

The best positive surprise of 2019 for me was probably Expedition GeForce - nobody really goes on about this coaster any more like they did 10 years ago. I thought maybe it has got rough or can't compete with newer coasters like Hyperion. But nope it was amazing - a coaster in a beautiful setting with bags of ejector airtime and smoother than a nice Weissbier. Lovely stuff.

Also my day at SFGAd exceeded all of my expectations - despite it only opening at 5:30pm, every ride was running full capacity with zero queues and we got an obscene number of rides in before closing time at 11pm. Plus El Toro lived up to my high expectations.
 
Yeah I think mine was balder - all my nerdy friends go on about helix but it really isn't all that - Balder is by far a more enjoyable ridiculous ride and it sits at the back so shy and timidly that you don't expect it to do what it does.
 
Joris en de Draak at Efteling.

When I first rode it in 2013 I expected it to be a fun family ride and to be eclipsed by the ride that actually encouraged me to visit the park; De Vliegende Hollander.

Instead, I was slightly underwhelmed by DVH, and upon riding Joris I came to love it! The ride was fast, there were pops of airtime throughout and it feels so chaotic. Those little hills are almost evil! I loved it.
 
Heth said:
Joris en de Draak at Efteling.

When I first rode it in 2013 I expected it to be a fun family ride and to be eclipsed by the ride that actually encouraged me to visit the park; De Vliegende Hollander.

Instead, I was slightly underwhelmed by DVH, and upon riding Joris I came to love it! The ride was fast, there were pops of airtime throughout and it feels so chaotic. Those little hills are almost evil! I loved it.
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Yes, of the coasters I rode in 2019, Joris was probably the biggest positive surprise, given that I had heard good things but not too much praise beforehand. Instead, I liked it better than Wodan and even Troy, the latter of which had that wild feeling of a great GCI but lacked the actual airtime.
 
Probably Goliath at SFGAm was the biggest surprise for me. It's a little short length-wise, but those stalls blew me away. I felt like we were upside down for ages. More stalls on everything forever, please.

And I may get some pushback from this one, but Beast's helix was a big one for me as well. The POVs did not do that thing justice. I let out some colorful words when we hit the helix, and I don't do that often on rides.
 
Sky said:
And I may get some pushback from this one, but Beast's helix was a big one for me as well. The POVs did not do that thing justice. I let out some colorful words when we hit the helix, and I don't do that often on rides.
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Entering that tunnel at night when that helix hits full speed is like being on a spaceship that hits hyperspace (at least from what sci-fi has ‘taught’ me).
 
My biggest surprises are:
Copperhead Strike: Everything about that ride was just a surprise to me. That was my first ever Jo-jo Roll, and it definitely caught me off-guard the first time. The rest of the ride was really fun and surprising too. The ridiculous hang-time, and the ejector, really got me. Those two surprising aspects of the ride are probably why it is in my Top 10.

Daredevil Dive: This was the coaster that really locked me in to this hobby. Before riding this, I was afraid to ride a lot of things. Anything over 200 feet had me in a panic attack. Once I got past that sensation of looking straight at the ground and diving towards it, and then having the ride pull you up to let you know, "Hey, you're gonna be ok. Enjoy the rest of your ride," it changed everything. I remember saying to my wife after getting off of DD, "Alright, let's do that coaster trip to Carowinds to ride Fury 325." We also got to go to Kings Dominion and ride i305 on that same trip to Carowinds. Two gigas on the same trip, when I would have never considered that type of coaster before riding DD? That's crazy! Looking back, I just find it funny that my entire life was changed by this adorable little Gerstlauer ride.
 
Goudurix.
Not only did it not kill me, I actually found it a fairly enjoyable, old skool looper. Bit of a jolt on one of the inversions, but otherwise absolutely fine. Not sure what everybody's on about.

Bandit.
In every measurable way, it's an awful, awful ride. But oh my god - it's just so damn funny!
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While I knew I would like it, Fahrenheit absolutely demolished my expectations! I knew it would be really good, but not good enough to be placed over Millennium Force and Maverick for me.

Also at Hersheypark, I went into Laff Trakk with barely any expectations. However, it ended up being a super fun ride, and even my grandma loved it! I would definitely ride it again, given the chance to, and I can't wait to ride more spinning coasters!
 
Fujiyama was way better than I expected. Wasn't too rough, but the layout really shines, great pacing, steep drops, and way ahead of its time considering what Arrow and Morgan were doing around then.
 
Jet Rescue was pretty shocking. I never expected it to be as intense and thrilling as it is.

Winjas left me completlyd stunned. I expected a fairly standard, if not tame, Maurer spinner experience. I never really watched POVs very closely so I was not expecting the surprises that the tracks hold.

I expected to really enjoy Time Traveler, but I had no idea how much fun it would truly be. I was disappointed when I first watched a POV and saw how much the ride pauses at the second launch, but in actuality, it really didn't affect the quality of the experience. It is hard to explain how exhilarating it is to rotate down a 90 degree drop or through inversions.
 
For me in context of the last year(ish) it would be:-

CanCan coaster - Like the original Eurosat, although it was sort fo forgettable amongst the whole of europa's line up - But I freakin loved CanCan, the whole theme, New music, scenery - now one of my fav rides at the park!

Valkyria - Yes Helix is amazing, but Valkria is a perfect supporting act and complements Lisebergs coaster line up perfectly.

The Dark ride section of Merlins Quest:- Whilst everyone was raving about Fenix, not so much attention was given to the boat ride in Toverlands Avalon, and yes whilst 80% is a slow outdoor boat ride, that small indoor dark ride section is probably the best dark ride in Europe!

Fury:- Punchy re-rideable and memorable.
 
Liam williams said:
The 3 that stand out for me are

balder- going to liseberg, all the hype was around helix, and I went there expecting that to be a top coaster.. however after Having 3 rides on each, i was shocked to be walking out the park saying balder is the most enjoyable coaster there (for me). I’m not a fan of woodys, but I’d never done an intamin woody before and honestly I can’t wait for the next!

Colorado adventure- Jesus Christ this isn’t a family ride? I done a front row first time riding and thought it was rough and had no intentions to ride again. However I decided to give it a second try on the back row and wow! It gives good airtime, it throws you out your seat & I’d say it’s definitely the most enjoyable and intense ‘family’ coaster (that I’ve done)

Hyperion- this coaster didn’t interest me at all tbh. I had no intention of going to Poland to ride it. I had way more intamins higher up in my bucket list to even care about this coaster... but with the opening of Zadra earlier this year I thought let’s go! All my hype and intentions was around that! I figured Hyperion would be good, but that’s it.
well Ileft energylandia with Hyperion as my number 1 coaster, I had 10 rides on each Zadra and Hyperion and as much as Zadra was better later on in the day(s), Hyperion was just consistently brilliant every time!
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Pretty much this... But instead of Colorado Adventure (it is great, but I wasn’t surprised, knew the history of the coaster) I’d add Fury at Bobbenjaanland... It’s a Guerst, My expectations were not great, but it surprised me (and a few others I think)
 
Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios Orlando. That is such a fun ride. Blew me away when I first went on it because I didn't know what to expect. Was my highlight of trip to Florida. On a revisit, it didn't hold up quite so well but the ride seemed more 'lit up' and more was visible - perhaps I am recalling it incorrectly. Ultimately, it just goes to show that not knowing what you are getting yourself into enables things to exceed your expectations... and less knowledge is sometimes a good thing!

The false ending was just ridiculous - really had me laughing at the end.
 
Tigris- Busch Gardens Tampa
I don't hear much about the Skyrocket 2 other than how Superman at SFDK is the best because of the lap bars and how the comfort collars restrict your ride experience. The 3rd launch was the most forceful I've experienced ( sry Mr. Freeze ). The Heartline Roll had excellent hang time despite the comfort collars. During the rest of the ride the whip is amazing, especially on the twisted drop on the heartline roll. I only have 2 takeaways from the ride. The ride duration and the seats. I'm a very small person and I still feel like the seats are very tight and compact.
 
Shivering Timbers- Michigan's Adventure

I went into this with low expectations. It has a simple but classic out&back layout that I'm usually not all that fond of, and it's a bit of an older woodie so I expected it to be very rough. Also, the ride ops on Wolverine Wildcat stapled me, which resulted in very minimal airtime- I expected the shivering timbers ride ops to do the same.

However, this ride really blew away my expectations. The ride ops didn't staple me, which allowed a lot of ejector on the out&back layout, so I appreciated it. The ride has a good track length, being what I believe to be the sixth-longest woodie in the US. And it wasn't nearly as rough as I expected, either. I admit that I marathoned this a couple of times over while I was visiting- I just really enjoyed this ride! Honestly, in my opinion, and experience, this is the only ride that's worth riding at Michigan's Adventure.
 
Alpengeist

Before this past summer, I had last rode it the year it opened (1997) and it was my favorite coaster for ages. But I heard it had gotten really rough. So when I rode it in August, I was surprised how smooth it was: I rode twice in the front row and the only roughness was very mild head banging during the cobra roll. The fact that Griffon now dominates the park skyline nearby made the experience a bit less immersive, but I still thought it was an amazing ride.
 
I'd say Wodan, Joris, Cancan coaster were great surprises for me. Also Big Thunder Mountain in Paris. I did not expect it to go that hard at the end!
 
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