So far this summer I’ve gone to Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Hersheypark and Disney World, which has brought my count up to 85. New ones for this season were:
- i305
- Twisted Timbers
- Reptilian (formerly avalanche)
- Grizzly
- Anaconda
- Pantheon
- DarKoaster
- Wildcat’s Revenge
- Tron Lightcycle Run
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
- Space Mountain (Alpha track)
For immersive rides, while I really loved Cosmic Rewind and Tron (though it was just OK during the day, the night ride makes it 10x better) neither beat out Hagrid’s for me.
For conventional coasters, I was glad that i305 lived up to the hype, the camelbacks on Twisted Timbers were nuts, and Wildcat’s revenge was completely awesome in every row I tried.
Pantheon was an excellent ride, but pretty shaky operations really made the experience unpleasant. With two trains it was constantly stacking or loading full trains from quick queue, and most of the time it was running a single train.
DarKoaster was mid.
really feels like BGW is coasting on the “most beautiful park” tagline meanwhile they didn’t theme or landscape Pantheon like, at all…
You can see it even in the new rides they are building. Pantheon is great but feels like it’s too short… InvadR is the same way. DarKoaster is the same thing… It’s like they are building something that has at least one marketing point but just doesn’t live up to the hype they make it out to be. It’s all about pushing people into the park, wringing them for all the money possible, and then letting them leave regardless of whether or not they are satisfied. It’ll work great for them short term but long term it will ruin what they had and it’ll take MANY years to gain that trust again.